25 September 2010: Ambassador Patricia Espinosa, Secretary of Foreign Relations of Mexico and incoming President of this year’s UN Conferences on Climate Change, addressed the Ministerial Consultation on Climate Change and the Cancun Conferences, which took place on 25 September in New York, US.

Recognizing that climate change involves “many technical details related to environmental protection,” she stressed that dealing with this challenge “is in reality an intensely political matter that goes to the very heart of development strategies and to the way our economies are run.” Making reference to the recent extreme weather events, she stressed the need to take urgent action. Espinosa also underscored the opportunities in clean technologies, practices and development projects, highlighting some examples in Mexico in the field of forestry. On the preparations for the Cancun Conference, she mentioned: consultations with representatives from every region and every group; work within the formal process and promotion of informal dialogues; and outreach efforts withcivil society, the private sector and other interested constituencies. She added that the Chairs of both working groups have “exercised remarkable leadership” and that parties now have negotiating texts to work upon. Underscoring that no single agreement can deal with the complexity of climate change, she expressed the “firm belief that in Cancun we can adopt a broad and balanced package of decisions that leads to immediate action.”

She concluded by informing listeners that Denmark, Mexico and South Africa, as Presidents of the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15), COP 16 and COP 17, respectively, have decided to act together as a troika with the aim of increasing continuity of efforts. She also mentioned that the Presidents will propose having each Presidency formally lead from the beginning of the preparatory process, and not only from the first day of the COP itself. [The Statement]