HE the Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah chairing the second COP18 Bureau meeting of 2013 in Bonn yesterday.
QNA/Bonn
HE the Chairman of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah, who is also President of the Climate Change Conference (COP18), has called on the governments to act on the decisions taken at the Doha climate change negotiations.
Al-Attiyah was chairing the second COP18 Bureau meeting of 2013 in the presence of Christiana Figueres, the executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Bonn.
At the outset of the meeting al-Attiyah hailed the climate change negotiations in Doha, which aimed to create a smoother path forward.
“Doha [series of negotiations] has opened up a new gateway to stronger ambition and to greater action, which is why we called the package the Doha Climate Gateway,” al-Attiyah said, adding: “Now governments must move quickly through the Doha Climate Gateway to push forward with the solutions to climate change at the national and international levels.”
He urged collective work within the process established under the Convention. “We agreed to speedily work toward a universal climate change agreement covering all countries from 2020, to be adopted by 2015. Therefore, it is your responsibility to secure the implementation of the decisions,” he said.
Al-Attiyah underlined the urgent need to make substantial progress on pressing issues before the Durban Platform deadline. “We all need to do our part and ensure that the process is more effective and timely in its deliverables.”
“As part of Qatar’s effort to learn from COP18, the presidency is currently working on a substantive report investigating the impact and outcome of COP18 from a variety of standpoints — economic development, logistics, capacity building, public policy, and others,” he said.
Al-Attiyah expressed his support for the Bureau and his keenness on working together over the year. “I would like to extend my appreciation to the Bureau for supporting the candidates I proposed for the co-chairs for the Work Programme on Long-term Finance and the Work Program on REDD plus. I understand that the chairs are starting to get down to work.”
Yesterday’s meeting discussed a number of issues on the agenda such as the following up on the implementation of the Doha Climate Gateway, which includes the outcomes of COP18 that was held in Doha in November.
