LOC09:12
06:12 GMT
UNITED NATIONS, Dec 2 (KUNA) -- Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday
expressed hope that the two-week UN Climate Change Conference being held in
Doha, Qatar, will extend the Kyoto Protocol when its first commitment period
expires at the end of this year.
Ban is scheduled to be in Doha, Qatar, December 4 to attend the opening of
the High-Level segment of the 18th session of the Conference of the Parties to
the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
"I would expect, through the leadership demonstrated by the Qatari
Government, first, that the second commitment period of Kyoto Protocol be
extended," Ban told KUNA in an interview before heading to Doha.
The second period is to begin on January 1, 2013. Its proposed duration
varies. While developed countries want it to last eight years, developing
smaller nations prefer five years only, in order to put time pressure on the
industrialized countries.
Most participants at the Conference, which was meant to limit global
warming, would also like the extension of the 1997 Protocol which set binding
obligations on the industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas
emissions by the year 2020.
The Doha Conference, November 26 - December 7, is the first in a Gulf
oil-producing country and the second in the Arab World where "most Arab
countries are emitting quite a high amount of green house emissions," Ban
said. The first meeting was held in Morocco.
Thousands of government representatives, international organizations, and
civil society members representing over 190 countries are attending the
Conference.
Ban's other expectations at the Conference are "Second, all these agreed
international institutions like Green Climate Fund and climate technological
Center and Networks should be established at Doha, and third, and most
importantly, we should discuss and formulate how we can mobilize the necessary
funding."
"With the decision in Copenhagen in 2009, USD 30 billion have been
mobilized by the end of this year," he explained. "Then we have to mobilize
USD 100 billion dollars annually by 2020."
"Those are the three expectations which I would like to achieve in Doha,"
he stressed.
He indicated that "I am going to convene a brain-storming session with
Finance Ministers and finance-related delegates on how we can work to mobilize
the necessary Climate Change financing issues."
Ban is expected to visit Kuwait, December 5, to meet with His Highness the
Amir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah, the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, and other high-level government officials.
The talks are expected to focus on the cooperation between Kuwait and the
UN and the issues related to Kuwait-Iraq files.(end)
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