Press Release: EU welcomes solid results of Nairobi world climate conference

The European Union welcomes the solid progress made at the United Nations climate change conference which ended on 17 November 2006 in Nairobi. The meeting, the first ministerial conference on climate change held in sub-Saharan Africa, brought together the 189 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 166 Parties to the Convention’s Kyoto Protocol. The Nairobi conference resulted in a series of decisions and new initiatives to support developing countries, which are the most vulnerable to climate change. These will help developing nations to adapt to climate change, thus reducing its adverse impacts, and will encourage more clean technology projects in Africa and other poorer regions. The conference gave added momentum to discussions on future global action to combat climate change which began last May. The Parties to the Kyoto Protocol agreed on a comprehensive work plan for their talks on further commitments by developed countries for the period after 2012, when the Protocol’s current emission targets expire. The conference carried out a first review of the Protocol and agreed to undertake a second review in 2008 as strongly requested by the EU.