HE Al Attiyah's Speech before the 10th Informal Meeting of Climate Change

Tokyo, March 01 (QNA) - Chairman of Qatar's Administrative Control and Transparency Authority HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, who is also the President elected of the 2012 UN Climate Change Conference, COP 18/CMP 8, took part in the 10th informal meeting on further actions against climate change . A number of other world countries'representatives and experts in environment and climate change also attend the event. At the outset of the meeting, HE Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah delivered a speech in which he sincerely thanked the Governments of Japan and Brazil for taking this initiative in addressing the issues of Climate Change under both the Convention and Kyoto Protocol. ''I, as the incoming President of COP18/CMP8, will not address any specific issues now, and I will leave this matter for the meeting to deliberate and discuss''. As the incoming president of COP18/CMP8, I urge you all, to maximize your efforts to accelerate the momentum of Climate Change negotiations toward COP18/CMP8 at the end of this year, while taking this advantage of what have been achieved in Durban last year and in Cancun a year before that. However, any such discussions must take into account the interests of all groups and parties under an atmosphere of cooperation, inclusiveness, and transparency, HE Al Attiyah told the audience . As the incoming president of COP18/CMP8 I urge participants to be open and frank in expressing their views in discussing issues of Climate Change. As you are well aware, Climate Change is one of the most urgent challenges to be addressed by the international community and that it is important to drive negotiations in a constructive and collaborative manner. This meeting is a good opportunity to kick off this year's discussions and to exchange views on major issues that should be handled during the year toward a successful outcome at COP18/CMP8 in Qatar. The Agenda of the 10th Informal Meeting on further actions against Climate Change includes major elements that are "in your view' need to be part of the future framework, such as Mitigation, Adaptation, Technology, Finance, Capacity Building and others that are under different bodies of the UNFCCC. To frame these elements, in an agreement that is acceptable to all, will depend on the cooperation between developing and developed countries, as well as the coordination between bilateral/regional cooperation and the UN framework. In my opinion, this is essential for the Climate Change negotiations to show the world our common commitment to address the issue of Climate Change, Chairman of Qatar's Administrative Control and Transparency Authority said. As always and after each COP, there are issues that remain unresolved and require further discussions and prioritization. I urge you all to prioritize the issues to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of this year's negotiations. The expected outcomes from COP18/CMP8 meetings will be built on your deliverance in the sessions to come, either in Bonn next May or the inter-session meetings that may take place. In closing, I took forward for a productive gathering that fosters an open dialogue and frank discussions between participants that will hopefully lead to enhanced action plans for the future. The meeting was attended by Qatar's ambassador to Japan HE Yusuf Bin Mohamed Bilal and members of the delegation accompanying HE Abdullah Al Attiyah who is also the President elected of the COP 18. (QNA)