Helping Developing Countries With Kyoto Protocol

UN Secretary-General announces “Nairobi Framework” to help developing countries participate in the Kyoto Protocol

(Nairobi, 15 November 2006) – The high-level segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference, attended by approximately 100 ministers from around the world and more than six thousand participants, was opened Wednesday by the Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, Moritz Leuenberger, President of the Swiss Confederation and the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

President Kibaki warned that in the light of new findings by the scientific community on rising greenhouse gas emissions, all Africans were “in danger of missing out on opportunities for sustainable development of their individual countries.”

“Climate change is threatening to frustrate poverty eradication efforts and making the prospect of meeting the Development Millennium goals less certain," he added.

Referring to climate change as a threat to peace and security, UN Secretary-General

Kofi Annan said:

“Global climate change must take its place alongside the threats of conflict, poverty and the proliferation of deadly weapons that have traditionally monopolized first-order political attention.”

“The UN offers the tools the world needs to respond,” he added.

The Secretary-General announced a new plan, the “Nairobi Framework.” Six United Nations agencies have launched an initiative to help developing countries – especially in Africa –participate in the Kyoto Protocol’s Clean Development Mechanism.

The Clean Development Mechanism permits industrialized countries, which have emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol, to invest in sustainable development projects in developing countries that reduce greenhouse gas emission, and thereby generate tradable emission credits.

“This mechanism is an outstanding example of a UN-led partnership linking government action to the private sector in the developing world,” Kofi Annan said.

The agencies involved in the partnership are: the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the World Bank Group, the African Development Bank, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Speaking on the status of negotiations so far, the Conference President Kenyan Minister for Natural Resources and the Environment Kivutha Kibwana said: “We have made a very good progress and agreed on a number of important issues, including on adaptation, and financial support for developing countries”.

“However, I am concerned that rigid positions on a small number of outstanding issues could put at risk an overall successful outcome of the Conference”.

In particular, the President alluded to the importance of the agreement on the review of the Kyoto Protocol and on the proposal put forward by the Russian Federation on a procedure for taking on voluntary commitments under the Protocol.

“I am hopeful that the spirit of Nairobi that has brought us this far in the negotiations will carry us to a successful outcome,” the Conference President added.

The opening of the three-day ministerial segment of the Nairobi United Nations Climate Change Conference on Wednesday also launches the second round of a ‘Dialogue on long-term cooperative action,’ in which all 189 Parties to the Convention participate.

During the Dialogue (15 and 16 November), presentations will be made on advancing development goals in a sustainable way and on realizing the full potential of market-based opportunities to combat climate change.

These presentations will include the United Kingdom’s Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change and the World Bank’s Investment Framework on Clean Energy and Development, along with presentations by countries, private sector and environmental groups.

The United Nations Climate Change Conference Nairobi 2006 is scheduled to end November 17.

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