UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres addressed participants to the pre-COP 18 Ministerial meeting on climate change held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, from 21-23 October.
She said COP 18, to be held in Doha at the end of 2012, will be an opportunity to implement: the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol as of 1 January 2013; and the broad infrastructure of support built under the AWG-LCA, while deciding where to handle outstanding issues.
22 October 2012: Addressing participants to the pre-COP 18 Ministerial meeting on climate change held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres highlighted that the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18), to be held in Doha, Qatar, at the end of 2012, provides an opportunity to make a global intervention that “wedges itself between a scientific fact and a widely-held misperception” that the climate change process is ineffective and stuck.
The meeting, organized by the Government of the Republic of Korea, was held from 21-23 October 2012. Figueres noted that COP 18 will be “an opportunity to show the world” that the intergovernmental climate change process: has built a firm response which now goes into implementation; continues to build further in order to keep with fairness; and is able to agree on increased ambition in order to keep within the 2ºC temperature limit adopted at UNFCCC COP 16.
Figueres further called on countries to move in Doha to: implement the second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol as of 1 January 2013; implement the broad infrastructure of support built under the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA), while deciding where to handle outstanding issues; and decide how the commitment of financial support to developing countries is managed. [UNFCCC Executive Secretary’s Statement]