HE Al-Attiyah Partakes in 4th Ministerial Meeting of Petersburg Climate Change Dialogue

Berlin, May 07 (QNA) - HE Chairman of Qatar's Administrative Control and Transparency Authority (ACTA), Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, who is also President of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP18) has participated in the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Petersburg Climate Change Dialogue, in Berlin. He extended thanks to the Government of Germany for organizing such a high-level meeting, in collaboration with Poland, with a view to addressing the challenges of climate change and future global climate agreement. "This meeting gives me the pleasant opportunity to reiterate my heartfelt appreciation for the generous efforts and the exceptional commitment you have shown during the COP 18, which contributed to the successful Doha outcomes," HE-Attiyah said in his speech before the 4th session of the meeting. He pointed out that Doha reaffirmed that establishing a climate change system is strengthened through firm and solid bases, noting that the key decisions of COP 18 achieved in the different negotiation working groups, had all led to adopting the "Doha Climate Gateway". He explained that the most important achievements of Doha Gateway were the agreement to a second commitment period with legally binding targets, successful conclusion of long-term cooperative action work-group, advancement on the Durban Platform, recognition of loss and damage and the decisions to move forward on finance. "A key achievement of the Doha Conference was the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, thus preserving until 2020 the only existing international legally-binding climate agreement. This secured what has been achieved in past COPs, while a new international binding agreement is negotiated," he said. "Five months have passed since the day we adopted the historic Doha Climate Gateway, but still we recognize that many more important implementation decisions are needed to address climate change," he added stressing that the decisions made in Doha streamlined the negotiating process as well as clearing the path towards delivering a new global climate agreement in 2015. HE the Chairman of the ACTA, Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, reassured that the Cop18 Presidency is interested in seeing that progress is made on all fronts, reaffirming his full support to Poland as the incoming presidency. He also expressed confidence that COP19 will provide further momentum for the climate change. Concluding his speech he said that the success accomplished in Doha was the result of collective work, adding that the dialogue in the meeting is indeed fruitful and helpful in identifying the important milestones required for the future work. The session was attended by HE Qatar's Ambassador to Germany Abdulrahman Mohamed Al-khulaifi and the members of the delegation accompanying HE the Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority. (QNA)