The first round of United Nations climate change talks in 2008 got under way in Bangkok at the end of March, with
the tough but successful negotiations in Bali still fresh in everyone's memory. Parties had agreed at Bali to
jointly step up international efforts to combat climate change and get to an agreed outcome in Copenhagen in 2009.
The talks in Bangkok thus marked the beginning of a new negotiating phase, drawing delegates from 162
countries tasked with fleshing out the Bali Road Map. This involved drawing up a work programme to
craft a future international climate pact that will successfully halt the increase in global
emissions within the next 10-15 years and dramatically reduce emissions by mid-century. The
two-stranded talks also involved taking forward important work under the Kyoto Protocol process. more
Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG), Closing
Plenary
Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWGLCA), Closing Plenary
Participants discussing while waiting for plenary to begin
The Bangkok Climate Change Talks are over
Press Service
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer addressing the press on the final day of the Bangkok Climate
Change Talks Download as
Podcast
In his statement to the press at the end of the week-long Climate Change Talks in Bangkok, Yvo de
Boer, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC, announced that a timetable had been agreed for the
negotiating process leading up to a long-term international climate change agreeement to be concluded
in Copenhagen in two years time. "The train to Copenhagen has left the
station," he said.
Mr. de Boer said that the two-year work programme broke up the huge task of reaching this agreement
into "bite-sized, manageable chunks of work."
He explained that Parties would consider the themes adaptation, mitigation, techonology , finance and
a shared vision for long-term cooperative action in conjunction with each other at every session to
make progress, and expressed his satisfaction that the critical issues were being discussed at an
early stage.
UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer addressing the press on the first day of the Bangkok Climate
Change Talks Download as
Podcast
At the opening press conference in Bangkok, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Yvo de Boer, explained the
work of the Ad hoc Working Group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention, and the
Working Group on further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol:
"What both these processes are primarily about is setting goals going into the
future."
He said that this involved "defining the level of ambition that industrialized countries
can achieve by taking on emission reduction commitments,"as well as
"examining to what extent developing countries can take real, measurable and verifiable
action to combat climate change, providing that real, measurable and verifiable money is on the
table." It also meant focusing on what adaptation measures need to be taken in the
future, he said.
Statement by the Executive Secretary at the opening of the Bangkok Climate Change Talks 2008
