A key milestone towards a new universal agreement on climate change was reached in Geneva on Friday 13 February, following seven days of negotiations by over 190 nations. Delegates from 194 countries convened in Geneva from 8 to 13 February to continue work following the Lima Climate Change Conference held in Peru, during the eighth part of the second session of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP) under UNFCCC.

The ADP is a subsidiary body which mandate is to develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties, which is to be completed no later than 2015 in order for it to be adopted at the twenty-first session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) and for it to come into effect and be implemented from 2020.

Nations concluded the Geneva Climate Change Talks by successfully preparing the negotiating text for the 2015 agreement. The agreement is set to be reached in Paris at the end of 2015 and will come into effect in 2020.

Prior to this session, on Friday 6 February, the Geneva Environment Network Secretariat organized a briefing on ADP 2-8, at the Palais des Nations, with the two ADP co-chairs, Ahmed Djoghlaf and Daniel Reifsnyder. During this event, Norbert Bärlocher from the Swiss Federal Office for Environment, provided a short speech on the Swiss perspectives on the meeting in Geneva. H.E. Luis Enrique Chavez Basagoitia, Peru Permanent Representative of Peru to the UN in Geneva and H.E. Nicolas Niemtchinow, Permanent Representative of France to the UN in Geneva spoke about the importance of the Lima Call for Climate Action at COP20, and the important milestones on the road to COP21 to be held in Parîs.

For more information: diana.rizzolio@unep.org