Kingborough Council’s Senior Environmental Health Officer, Abyilene McGuire, has been selected to attend the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark from 7 to 18 December 2009.
The conference is the 15th Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP15) held within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
It is one of the biggest UN conferences ever to be held outside New York or Geneva. Ministers, officials and delegates from 192 countries are expected to attend, with a total of 12,000 to 15,000 people in Copenhagen throughout the two week conference.
Abyilene McGuire became involved with this event through Girl Guides Australia (GGA). The Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) linked with GGA to send a representative as part of its delegation and Abyilene was the chosen representative.
The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) has also sent a delegation to the conference, so Abyilene will link with this group as well.
The conference is being held at the Bella Centre, Copenhagen. This is a 123,000 square metre state of the art facility and is considered to be one of Europe’s leading centres. It will host 2,500 meetings over the two week conference.
AKF and WAGGGS have both been admitted to the conference with observer status. Once an organisation is admitted, its representatives may attend sessions of the Convention bodies as observers.
Participation in COP15 is restricted to duly nominated representatives of Parties, observer States, accredited observer organisations and accredited press/media. COP15 is crucial as it offers a historical opportunity to step up international action on climate change.
The Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gases worldwide, came into force on 16 February 2005. It has been ratified by 184 Parties of the UN Climate Convention.
This year represents the last chance to establish an ambitious global climate agreement for the period from 2012, when the first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol expires.
The following four issues have been listed as the political essentials requiring clarity at the conference:
- ambitious emission reduction targets for
developed countries - nationally appropriate mitigation actions
of developing countries - scaling up financial and technological
support for both adaptation and
mitigation - an effective institutional framework with
governance structures that address the
needs of developing countries.
Abyilene McGuire said there are a number of other plans under way for various projects throughout the conference.
“These include specific youth activities focusing on intergenerational equity, ambitious targets and profiling youth as both constructive partners in negotiations and as implementers of solutions,” she said. “It may also include non formal education projects run by COP15 youth delegates, commencing with local youth communities in schools.
“This conference is the absolute pinnacle gathering that an environmental health practitioner can usually only dream of attending and I am very much looking forward to actively participating.”
