Closing press briefing
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In his closing press briefing, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer describes the outcome of the two-week conference and the successful adoption of the Bali roadmap for a future international agreement on climate change.

"This COP has made an important contribution in setting a very ambitious agenda going into the future. But I also think this COP has delivered real balance by addressing many of the direct needs today that developing countries have."

Concern turns to optimism on progress of negotiations
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At a second press briefing in the late afternoon, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer struck a more optimistic note than earlier. He said that the technology issue had now been solved, which meant that technology needs assessments made by developing countries would be turned into concrete project proposals. There were also more encouraging signs with regard to a post-2012 agreement.

Still to be resolved was how to formulate the objectives of industrialized countries on the one hand and those of developing countries on the other.

On the issue of emission reduction ranges, Mr. de Boer said: “What’s becoming clear to me is the more robust industrialized countries are willing to be in terms of the effort they are working towards, the stronger the reaction you’re likely to get from developing countries.”

If these commitments were watered down, he said, G77 countries would be justified in asking why they should be more ambitious

Concern over the pace of negotiations
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During today’s noon briefing at the midpoint of the critical ministerial segment of the conference, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer voiced concern about the pace of negotiations. He explained that many of the outstanding issues taken into the high-level segement had been linked to each other, thereby creating an “an all-or-nothing situation,” and that if the work on a future agreement was not completed in time, then “the whole house of cards falls to pieces.”

Mr.de Boer stressed that it was “imperative for all countries to realize that progress on the future is in their interest." The whole purpose of launching these formal negotiations, he said, was to achieve a broader agreement that would deliver on existing commitments under the Convention; for example on technology and on finance to green the economic growth of developing countries. Without a decision on the future, he said, that prospect would no longer be there.

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon taking questions
from journalists at the afternoon press conference

At an afternoon press briefing today following the opening of the High-Level segment of the Climate Change Conference, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed the importance of adopting a Bali roadmap for a future climate agreement. “We work for success, we don’t work for failure. We must succeed at this Bali meeting. We must be able to launch negotiations for an international agreement by 2009 with a clear agenda,“ he declared.

Mr. Ban pointed out that science had made it quite clear; all that was lacking was political will. He added, “I would really urge the major economic powers to exercise flexibility and to demonstrate their leadership."

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A flavour of the opening of the High-Level segment
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A flavour of the opening of the High-Level segment, with extracts from statements by:

- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
"We are all part of the problem of global warming. Let us all be part of the solution that begins in Bali. Let us turn the climate crisis into a climate compact."

- President of the Republic of Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
"Let us set clear and new directions. Let us produce the strategic Bali roadmap."

- UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer
"We simply cannot afford to fail our people by leaving this unique island without convergence of science and politics."

With the start of the crucial High-Level segment of the Climate Change Conference in Bali only a day away, agreement has been reached on several important issues under discussion. Of special note was a decision which heralds the launch of the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund, set up to finance concrete adaptation projects in developing country Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Parties agreed on the Global Environment Facility (GEF) as the secretariat and the World Bank as trustee of the Fund, which will become operational with the start of the Protocol’s first commitment period in 2008.

Meanwhile, continuing speculation on the issue of emission reduction targets prompted a detailed clarification from UNFCCC Secretary Yvo de Boer. “25%-40% by 2020 is an emission reduction range, it’s not a target, and it’s something that governments said earlier this year they should be guided by in the context of the negotiations,” he said, adding that “contrary to some reports, these figures do not prejudge the outcome of the negotiations.”

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Talks on a future agreement continued today, and among the topics under debate was the need for quantified national emission objectives for industrialized countries - guided by the range of 25-40% reductions by 2020 – and the need for emissions to peak in the next 10-15 years. Parties also acknowledged the need to strengthen existing commitments and enhance their implementation, especially with regard to developing countries.

Further discussions focused on technology cooperation to support emission reduction efforts. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said that "technology must be at the heart of the future response to climate change.” Environmentally sound technologies and sustainable development approaches, he said, could "help developing countries leapfrog the carbon intensive stage of economic development.”

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After what he described as a busy week of talks, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, spoke of a "strong willingness” by Parties for an outcome at the conference, which has attracted more than 10.000 participants, including delegates, NGO’s, international organizations and the media.

Mr. de Boer explained that the two-week conference needs to deliver on ongoing issues of particular importance to developing countries. This means moving forward on adapation, transfer of technology and deforestation, as well as strengthening capacity-building. What the conference also needs to do is launch a process on action beyond 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends. Mr. de Boer reiterated that no final deal on a future climate regime will be concluded at Bali, and that the goal is to launch negotiations, set an agenda on the main building blocks of a future agreeement and set an end date for conclusion of the negotiations.

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The contact group on the future had “substantive discussions on objectives and principles that should guide the negotiating process beyond Bali,” he said, while useful discussions had also taken place on mitigation - one of the main building blocks of a future agreement. He added that the need to give developing countries emission reduction incentives had come up very strongly, as well as recognition of what they are doing now.

The focus of today’s press briefing was on financing the response to climate change. Mr. de Boer stated that economic and financial instruments form an important part of the solution to climate change, and described the financial component of the debate as “the key to success as we move into the future.”

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The work of the special group on the future, which began yesterday and continued today, is generating “a huge amount of interest, ” he said. Brazil (on behalf of the G77), China, the United States, Japan and the European Union have all come forward with suggestions on what the Bali roadmap should look like and what needs to be included in a long-term climate change policy. He described the fact that many countries have come prepared with their own proposals on how the process should move forward as “encouraging.”

On the recurring subject of emissions targets, Mr. de Boer emphasized that “what is clear to everyone is that industrialized countries must continue to take the lead and must reduce their emissions by 25-40% by 2020. That is the agreed range for industrialized countries.”

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Describing progress so far, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, said that things are “looking good.” He pointed to the first meeting this afternoon of the contact group, an initiative of Conference President Rachmat Witoelar, which will discuss ways of reaching a future climate change agreement and how this agreeement should be structured. In this context, Mr. de Boer stressed once again the fact that the Bali Conference will not finalize a post-2012 climate deal, but can ”put in place a two-year process to work towards such a deal.”
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While there is major focus at the conference on the future, Mr. de Boer highlighted the importance of maintaining a balance between future and current issues. He underlined the need not only to look at creating a long-term climate change regime, but also to pay attention to the problems facing many countries today. One of the key issues for developing countries is technology, and Mr. de Boer confirmed that the conference body on implementation, the SBI, has now begun discussing ways to implement the transfer of techology to developing countries.

A major focus of the briefing was on adaptation to climate change – an issue of increasing importance and urgency given the already visible as well as projected effects of climate change which are making adaptation inevitable even under the most optimistic scenarios.

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Today’s UNFCCC press briefing at the thirteenth Climate Change Conference in Bali opened with a statement by Kishan Kumarsingh, Chairman of the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) on the importance of reducing emissions from deforestation.

Mr. Kumarsingh explained that forest ecosystems play a key role globally, both in tackling climate change - by absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere - and in adaptation to climate change by maintaining ecosystem services and providing livelihood options.

Deforestation is estimated to have occurred at the alarming rate of 13 million hectares per year in the period 1990-2005, accounting for 20% of global annual greenhouse gas emissions in the late 1990s and making it the world’s second largest source of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Conference is expected to adopt a decision on reducing emissions from deforestation in developing countries. The text under consideration, Mr. Kumarsingh said, recognizes the urgency to take action on this issue and lays the groundwork for an early start to capacity-building activities and pilot projects in these countries. It also addresses mobilization of resources by governments as well as the methodologcial work needed to estimate emissions from deforestation. These decisions, he added, are important in paving the way for an arrangement on reducing emissions from deforestation in a future climate change agreement.

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At the opening press briefing of the thirteenth Conference on Climate Change, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, shared the platform with Indonesian Environment Minister and freshly elected Conference President, Rachmat Witoelar, who spoke first. Mr. de Boer began his statement by endorsing the words of Mr. Witoelar that the two-week negotiations will not deliver a fully negotiated and agreed climate deal, but are rather aimed at setting the necessary wheels in motion for a future climate change regime.

With almost record numbers of participants and media making this one of the largest conferences to date, Mr. de Boer said that the eyes of the world were on the meeting looking for a political answer to the signals given by the international scientific community through the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

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