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Information prepared by the Climate Change Division
of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine (MENR)

Participation in the 8^th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

Official delegations from 167 countries (more than 1460 delegates), representatives of 312 ecological and other international and regional organizations (approximately 2090 participants), representatives of more than 222 media companies (more than 790 persons) have participated in the Conference. The total number of the Conference participants reached 4,352.

At the first plenary session held on October 23, Mr. Baalu, Minister of Environment and Forests of India, was elected the Cop-8 President.

In this plenary meeting the delegates approved the Cop-8 agenda, with the exception of few items. The Cop-8 was simultaneously accompanied with the 17^th sessions of the Subsidiary Bodies such as the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI). These Convention supporting bodies started their work after the opening of the 1^st plenary meeting of Cop-8. The Cop-8 agenda didn’t include joint meetings between the subsidiary bodies and the COP.

The President of Cop-8, Executive Secretary of the UNFCCC and the Prime Minister of India, Mr. A.b. Vajpayee, welcomed the participants of the Cop-8 high-level representative meeting at the 3^rd plenary session on October 30. N. Desai, Under-secretary-general for Economic and Social Affairs, spoke on behalf of the UN Secretary-general. Representatives of other UN institutions and associated organizations, along with participants from international and non-governmental organizations had also made their statements.

In his statement, the Cop-8 President noted that addressing the challenge of climate change is actually linked to resolving such global problems as poverty eradication, because sustainable development is not achievable unless the problem of climate change is resolved.

Many speakers emphasized а link between economic and sustainable development. A number of comments had been made regarding the interdependence between these two processes with focus made on the fact that sustainable development is dependent on economic growth. During the discussions delegates exchanged their views on considering climate change and global warming the most considerable barriers on the path of economic development for the near future..

S. Kurykin, Head of the Ukrainian delegation and Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources of Ukraine, participated in the high-level session roundtables. The Ukrainian delegation had distributed to the Cop-8 delegates а document regarding the Ukrainian delegation position on the following main issues:

- Negotiations in New-delphi is logical continuation of the process commenced in the Hague, Bonn, Marrakech and Johannesburg with regard to further steps on the implementation of the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. The decisions made at Cop-7 – the Marrakech Accords – had opened а way to accelerate ratification of the Kyoto Protocol.

- Ukraine supports the provisions of the Marrakech Declaration of Ministers, particularly those related to poverty eradication, capacity building and development, and introduction of ecologically clean technologies to the key sectors of the economy, specifically in the power sector.

- Ukraine, like other countries with economy in transition, needs to develop its national greenhouse gas inventories and create а national inventory system. Therefore, it is important to set up necessary conditions for implementing the Marrakech decisions on capacity building in countries with economy in transition taking into account country specific conditions.

- It is necessary to introduce efficient control on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and to ensure that clear, transparent and efficient mechanism on exchange of emission reduction units exchange data is employed in national registries. At the same time, it is necessary to avoid an excessively complicated supervision and monitoring system.

- On their way to the Kyoto Protocol ratification the Parties should neglect their obligations under the UNFCCC. Ensuring the fulfillments of the Convention requirement is а key to the successful application of the Kyoto Protocol flexible mechanisms.

- Acceding to the Kyoto Protocol requires implementing а number of national level measures and that might problematic in many states, especially in countries with economy in transition, as such measure could result in considerable future economic losses.

- The Ukrainian delegation draws attention of the Conference delegates to the fact that greenhouse gas emission reductions achieved in Ukraine were due to the processes economic restructuring during the transition period. These reductions had been attained as а result of а drastic financial and social situation in the country, prolonged economic recession and increased unemployment level.

- Ukraine’s intention is to give а priority to Joint Implementation projects as it considers the Joint Implementation mechanism the prevailing mode of the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the Convention. The perspective increase of economic activity in the country is to realized through the introduction and application of modern energy saving, and ecologically sound technologies acquired through Joint Implementation projects.

- Ukraine, similar to other countries with economy in transition, has substantial potential to effectively reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future if the planned industrial modernization based on introduction and application of energy-saving and renewable technologies proceeds.

The Cop-8 adopted the Delhi Declaration of Ministers emphasizing the with the following statements:

• Economic and social development and poverty eradication are priority tasks for developing countries;
• Climate change threatens future welfare and economic progress in all regions;
• Present and future climate change related problems along with their negative impacts should be addressed within the framework of sustainable development on the basis of international cooperation.

During the discussions of the Cop-8 agenda items, the Ukrainian delegation took the guidance of the approved Terms of References and decisions by the Ukraine Inter-ministerial Commission on Climate Change regarding the implementation of the UNFCCC (Minutes No. 12 of 10.17.02, paragraph. I, 2). The Ukrainian delegation made every possible effort to ensure that concerns of countries with economy in transition are taken into account in the Cop-8 decisions, specifically those related to imposing additional commitments, particularly financial ones.