11 November 2010: The Tarawa Climate Change Conference (TCCC), which met from 9-11 November 2010 in Tarawa, Kiribati, as a session of the Climate Vulnerable Forum, concluded with the release of the Ambo Declaration.

The Conference brought together selected representatives from the key negotiating groups within the UNFCCC process to attend a one-day high level conference on climate change. In the Ambo Declaration, ministers and government representatives participating in the Conference: express concern over the slow pace of UNFCCC negotiations; acknowledge that elements of common ground can be agreed on for immediate actions; and highlight links between the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and climate change adaptation and mitigation. They call for: an urgent package to be agreed on at the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 16) to assist the most vulnerable States; developed countries to make financial resources available that are new and additional, predictable and sustainable, and on a clear, transparent and grant basis; consideration of the need to establish a mechanism for planning, preparing for and managing climate change disaster risk; prioritization of capacity building and technology transfer needs; and support consideration of strategies and actions directed at protecting those people displaced within or across borders due to climate change.

The Declaration was adopted by: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Fiji, Japan, Kiribati, Maldives, Marshall Islands, New Zealand, Solomon Islands and Tonga. The Climate Vulnerable Forum was initiated by the Maldives in 2009 to bring together countries that are particularly susceptible to the adverse impacts of climate change to discuss ways in which they could proactively prepare for and address these impacts. The purpose of the TCCC is to agree on points of common interest between key negotiating groups and forge a path in which parties to the UNFCCC can move towards action in addressing the impacts of climate change on the most vulnerable States. [Conference Website and Declaration]