Informele Workshop klimaatverandering van de Raad van de Europese Unie (en)

Portugal will be welcoming to Lisbon the Informal Workshop of the International Environment Group on Climate Change of the Council of the EU. The group is responsible for coordinating the EU's negotiating strategy for the international negotiations on climate change within the United Nations.

On 15, 16 and 17 July Portugal will be host to the principal negotiators of Member States and the Commission in an informal workshop on climate change.

At this crucial time for international negotiations on climate change, with the presentation of a highly ambitious and demanding European strategy for emissions reductions, and the US administration giving signs of seeking an active return to the United Nations in order to find a framework for such an international rulebook, the workshop's participants will be asked to concentrate their thoughts on preparing the 13th conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to be held in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007.

It is hoped that the Bali Conference will see the start of negotiations on the global climate rules for the period after 2012, and that the Conference will produce a two-year programme of work resulting in a range of elements. These include benchmarks and time-limits for implementation, technology, deforestation, adapting to the impacts of climate change, and finance, which are the pillars of the future rulebook for combating climate change.

The workshop will also be discussing ways of gaining the confidence of other key countries, including the United States, China, India and Brazil.