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Climate Change Talks in Germany Begin

Palikir, Pohnpei (FSM Information Services): August 13, 2009 - On Tuesday, August 11, 2009, the latest round of UN climate change talks kicked off in Bonn, Germany, and the Director of the FSM Office of Emergency and Environmental Management, Andrew Yatilman, is attending.

This meeting is the third of six meetings to be held ahead of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) talks in December in Copenhagen on a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period for reducing emissions ends in 2012. Some 2,000 participants are expected to make further progress on the negotiating text during the five-day gathering in Bonn.

"We are at an exciting point in the negotiations which can lead us to the turning point in the fight against climate change in Copenhagen," said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

In the time remaining before the Copenhagen meeting in December, two more rounds of meetings will be held; one in Bangkok, Thailand, in October and one in Barcelona, Spain, in November.