The Committee approved: a draft titled “Protection of global climate for present and future generations of humankind,” which would have the Assembly underscore the importance of an ambitious, substantive, holistic and balanced outcome of ongoing climate negotiations; and a draft resolution on sustainable mountain development, which would have the Assembly call on governments to study the specific concerns of mountain communities, paying particular attention to the adverse impacts of climate change on mountain environments and to biological diversity.
22 November 2011: The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) has adopted without a vote 12 draft resolutions addressing, inter alia, the protection of global climate and sustainable mountain development.
The Committee approved a draft titled “Protection of global climate for present and future generations of humankind,” which would have the Assembly underscore the importance of an ambitious, substantive, holistic and balanced outcome of ongoing negotiations in the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC and the Meeting of Parties acting as the Conference of the Parties (COP/MOP) to the Kyoto Protocol.
The Committee Secretary then explained that the Assembly requested the UN Secretary‑General to make provisions in his proposal for the programme budget for the COP to the Climate Change Convention, to be held for two weeks next year in Bonn, Germany. She said approval of the text would not entail any additional requirements to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2012‑2013, on the understanding that the Secretariat covered the travel costs if meetings were to be held outside Bonn. Any additional meetings not included in the calendar should be funded through extrabudgetary resources. The representative of the US stated that although she had joined the consensus, the UN regular budget should not be used to subsidize independent and self‑sustaining treaty bodies and conventions such as the UNFCCC. The representative of Singapore thanked the Committee for its constructive work to achieve that outcome.
Under the terms of a draft resolution on sustainable mountain development (document A/C.2/66/L.33/Rev.1), the Assembly would express deep concern at the recent increase in number and scale of natural disasters, noting their particularly negative consequences in mountain regions of developing countries. The Assembly would also call on governments to study the specific concerns of mountain communities, with a view to promoting sustainable mountain development, paying particular attention to the adverse impacts of climate change on mountain environments and to biological diversity. [UN Press Release]