Accra Talks opening press conference

In a press conference held on the opening day, the UN's top climate change official underlined the urgency of progress in the Talks on the main elements of a strengthened international climate change deal set to be concluded in Copenhagen. "Negotiations need to speed up and become more concrete if Governments are to meet the 2009 deadline they have set for themselves," he said.

Mr. de Boer highlighted the importance of this meeting taking place in Africa, a continent particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. African countries, he said, had the opportunity to make a real contribution to the design of a strengthened Copenhagen agreement based on their needs.

The main task for the negotiating group under the Kyoto Protocol in Accra is to consider the types of tools for cost-effective emission reductions of industrialized countries beyond 2012, in order to pave the way for negotiations on emission reduction ranges in Poznań in December. Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries will be among several key issues for the negotiating group on long-term cooperative action under the Convention.

"Accra needs to produce concrete proposals to be included in a draft text for Copenhagen," Mr. de Boer said, stressing that "time is short and the clock is clearly ticking."