Day #1 - 29 November 2010: The Opening

The Local Government delegation arrived at the COP16 venue after being stuck in traffic like many other delegates traveling from Cancún Messe to Moon Palace.

 Nevertheless, local government representatives arrived on time to the welcome ceremony, which was opened by the Mexican Nobel Prize winner, Mario Molina and followed by the intervention by fellow Nobel prize winner Rajendra Pachauri.Both speakers urged delegates to find solutions to the climate change problem and to achieve stabilization levels. They also spoke of the importance of taking both mitigation and adaptation into account as they are needed to solve  this global problem. In addition, Pachauri put great emphasis on the benefits that should be also taken into account when discussing how to address climate change, such  as equity and sustainability. 

UNFCCC Executive Secretary, Christiana Figueres, and President of Mexico, Felipe Calderón, encouraged parties to achieve consensus, since time is running out and major climate disasters were evident throughout 2010. A delay in mitigation action will increase the effects and consequences in poor regions and communities in particular. These communities have hardly contributed to the global warming problem at all. COP President, Ms Espinosa, has expressed her personal commitment to a frank, open, transparent, informative process.  

A very emotive intervention from representatives  of the Mexican indigenous communities, and the women of these communities was part of the welcoming ceremony.

Following this, Parties got down to work and interventions were made by groups of parties in the opening of the COP and the opening of the CMP. Civil society, including Local Governments and Municipal Authorities were supposed to make some interventions in both plenaries, however this unfortunately did not happen. The interventions that should have been delivered are available in yesterday’s report.

The opening of the COP continued in the afternoon, although this should have not been the case. The opening of the LCA went smoothly and all the interventions from civil society were made. For Local Governments and Municipal Authorities, Ronan Dantec, Vice- mayor of Nantes, France and UCLG Climate Spokeperson took to the floor. His intervention is available here.

Unfortunately as was the case earlier in the day, the intervention from any civil society group, including local governments, was not possible.

At the end of the day, from the four possible interventions during the plenaries for local governments, only one took place.

In parallel to this process, and very much linked to it, discussions with other civil society constituencies took place to make concrete proposals on how to best enhance meaningful participation of civil society in the UNFCCC process.

For tomorrow, an intervention on this issue is expected. In addition, a briefing from the President of the COP to civil society will take place.

Further remarks:

On the future matters of the COP/CMP, it has been confirmed that the COP17 and CMP7 next year will take place in Durban, South Africa from 28 Nov – 9 December, 2011.  In addition, it has been said that for COP18 and CMP 8 there should be an Asian host country; and that for COP19 and CMP9 an Eastern European country should host the events.

During the LCA opening, a proposal for a single draft decision with all elements of agreement was proposed by the Chair. This has been supported by some parties, however, the EU and the Umbrella group raised concerns that any balanced package must include substantial mitigation and MRV. 

To visit the COP16 Photo Gallery click here.

Download the pdf of the daily report: Day #1 - 29 November 2010: The Opening