Host country agreement on climate change conference to be held Marrakesh signed monday

Morocco and the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in Marrakesh Monday a host country agreement for the seventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention, which will take place in Marrakech from October 29 to November 9.

The accord was initialed by Morocco's Minister of Spatial Planning, Urban Managing, Housing and Environment, Mohamed El Yazghi, and executive secretary of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, Michael Zammit Cutajar (Malta).

The accord defines the commitments to be honored by both Morocco and the secretariat to ensure success to the event that will be attended by some 8,000 participants from 185 countries, international organizations, ngos, and university and media milieus.

"By hosting this conference, Morocco would like to demonstrate to the international community the political commitment that Africa as a whole has to this common objective," El Yazghi said.

He said that the conference will incept mechanisms for the implementation of the Kyoto protocol and that Morocco will work to bring standpoints closer in a bid to reach a consensus that would actually enable the enforcement of the Kyoto protocol in 2002.

"We must make further progress towards an effective international strategy to combat climate change," said El Yazghi.

The secretariat said at the Marrakesh meeting, the political deal concluded in Bonn in July will be converted into a package of detailed decisions. Such decisions will enable ratification of the Convention's Kyoto Protocol by Governments whose adhesion is necessary to bring it into force, also guiding future action under the Convention itself.

The secretariat said the high-level talks on global warming will take place in Africa for the first time.