The UN’s climate change secretariat, the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency and the Swedish Ministry of the Environment held a three-day UN workshop on climate information. The aim was to bring together climate information officers from European countries, showcase best practice and learn from one another. The results will be presented during the climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December, according to a press release from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
“Both the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol highlight the significance of climate information. The UNFCCC states that all parties at national level should promote public awareness of and access to information on climate change,” said Laurence Pollier from the UNFCCC Secretariat.
Sweden has been working for many years to raise awareness of climate change and is holding the workshop on climate information in cooperation with the UNFCCC Secretariat.
“If we are to meet EU emission targets, the populations of all countries need to know what is required and how they can reduce their own emissions,” says Kerstin Heikenfeldt, climate information officer at the Swedish EPA, who took the initiative for the workshop.
Jeremy Wates, secretary of the UNECE Aarhus Convention, presented at the workshop on UNECE and UNITAR’s offer to help interested countries with implementation of Article 6 of UNFCCC and the New Delhi Work Programme. "UNECE and UNITAR can assist with preparation of national article 6 assessments and national profiles addressing the implementation of the Aarhus Convention with a focus on climate change information access and decision-making," he said.
Article 4 of the UNFCCC commits Parties to “encourage the widest participation in this process, including that of non-governmental organizations”. The revised New Delhi Work Programme suggests to Parties to prepare national needs assessments and plans of action to implement Article 6.
[Source: Swedish News on Climate, UNECE secretariat]
