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October 29 - November 10, Marrakech, Morocco, hosted the 7th session of the UNFCCC Conference of Parties (Cop-7). The Ukrainian delegation headed by the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Serhiy Kurykin was an active negotiations participant over the course of the meeting (for more information see the link above and the MENR website).
On October 29 at the Plenary Session opened by Cop-6 President Jan Pronk, the Cop-7 President was elected, Mohamed Elyazghi, the Minister of territory management, urban development and environment of Morocco.
The Cop-7 agenda was revised at the first plenary session and focused on а package of documents that derive from the "Bonn Agreement on the Buenos-aires Plan of Actions Implementation" of July 25, 2001 (decision 5/CP.6)
Along the Cop-7 the 15th session of Subsidiary Bodies, in particularly the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice and the Subsidiary body for Implementation, also continued its work.
In order to finalize the unresolved issues of the Cop-6, the Cop-7 participants continued their efforts in the same groups headed by the same Chairs as during the Cop-6 (2) meeting. The draft decisions on work program on mechanisms, procedures and mechanisms on compliance under the Kyoto Protocol and national systems, adjustments and guidelines under Articles 5, 7 and 8 of the Kyoto Protocol required most attention of the negotiators. The groups worked hard to develop decisions that could be adopted by the Cop-7.
In course of negotiations, the groups had most difficulties in agreeing upon the procedures and mechanisms on compliance under the Kyoto Protocol and national systems, adjustments and guidelines under Articles 5, 7 and 8 of the Kyoto Protocol when discussing the related issues, including the requirements of the Article 4 of the Convention and Articles 3.14 and 7.4 of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as reporting on land-use, land-use change and forestry.
During November 7-9 at the high segment meetings, the unresolved issues of the Cop-7 also were addressed. On November 7, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Minister Kurykin, expressed the position of Ukraine regarding the Cop-7 agenda negotiation issues.
On November 10 to accelerate the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) the Cop-7 plenary session elected the CDM Executive Board. The board was formed upon а series of consultations within the regional groups and groups of the Parties of both, included and not included in the Annex 1 of the Convention. The elected Executive Board members representing Eastern Europe are O. Pluzhnikov of the Russian Federation and М.Shvangaridze of Georgia who gained support of the Ukrainian delegation. V. Lipinskiy of Ukrainian delegation became а member of the experts working group on technology transfer.
The Cop-7 participants discussed and adopted а number of decisions and conclusions on national communications that were recommended by the Subsidiary Body for Implementation, adopted the budget for the years 2002-2003, as well as the reports of the 15th session of the Subsidiary Bodies. The Conference participants agreed to the dates of the Cop-8 in India, on October 23 - November 1, 2002.
The Ukrainian delegation, taking an active part in the negotiation process, acted pursuant to the Decision of the Interministerial Commission (Minutes of October 31, 2001, article ІІ, 2). Most attention was paid to the guiding procedures and mechanisms on compliance under the Kyoto Protocol aimed at securing the interests of the countries with economies in transition.
The Cop-6 Bureau member V.Lipinskiy of MENR participated in the Bureau sessions during the Cop-7 meeting. The Ukrainian delegation representatives also took part in the Umbrella Group meetings discussing the basic issues on draft decisions negotiated.
For adjusting its position Ukrainian delegation was consulting the representatives of the "Central Group-11" (Cg-11) countries (includes 11 European countries with economies in transition), European Union, Umbrella Group, Central Asia, Caucasus and Moldova group (CACM). The uncertainty regarding the official recognition of Ukraineъs candidacy for the EU membership is viewed to be а major obstacle for Ukraine to become а Cg-11 member. It also should be noted that the Umbrella Group members were providing constructive support to the Ukrainian delegationъs position, therefore, it is quite possible for Ukraine to count on this support in the future.
To fulfil the "Bonn agreement on the Buenos-aires Plan of Actions Implementation" of July 25, 2001, Cop-7 adopted а package of the related documents. All together these are called the "Marrakech accords", consisting of two parts:
- Finalized decisions on the issues agreed upon during the Cop-6(2) meeting and submitted to Cop-7 for approval.
- Draft decisions, which were not agreed upon at Cop-6, and submitted
to Cop-7 for further discussion and approval.
During the whole Cop-7 session Minister Kurykin was meeting
the leaders of other delegations.
Information prepared by the Climate
Change Division
of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources (MENR) of Ukraine