Commission to participate in international seminar on future of climate change

Informal discussions of current and future international responses to climate change will start next week with a seminar of government experts organised under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

The two-day seminar 16 and 17 May in Bonn, Germany, will bring together experts from 189 countries. The objective of the EU, which will be represented by the European Commission and all 25 Member States, is to share information, hear the views of others, and begin building a common understanding on which actions need to be taken in the future to master the global climate change challenge.

The Commission will present the European Climate Change Programme, including the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. The EU will not present proposals for a future regime, but looks forward to an open exchange of ideas with the other Parties. A decision on when to launch formal negotiations of a future climate change regime is expected to be taken at the next Conference of the UNFCCC Parties/first meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in December 2005 in Montreal, Canada.

In February, the Commission issued a Communication setting out its ideas for future action against climate change (see IP/05/155 and MEMO/05/42). More information on the seminar can be found at: http://unfccc.int/meetings/seminar/items/3410.php

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