25 January 2010: The “Weekly” newsletter of the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) for the period 25-29 January 2010 reports on the first meeting in 2010 of the Executive Secretaries of the UN Regional Commissions, which included discussions on the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.
The meeting was held in Beirut, Lebanon, on 25 January 2010, hosted by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA). The Executive Secretaries of the UN Regional Commissions discussed major global and regional developments and their possible implications on the work and positioning of the UN and the Commissions for 2010. Discussions focused on, among other things, the follow-up to the 15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the role of the Regional Commissions in fostering practical and technical solutions to climate change and building countries’ capabilities to enable those solutions. The Executive Secretaries also discussed planned regional consultations on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in preparation for the MDG summit in September 2010. [UNECE Weekly]