UK civil servants are supporting ministers in seeking an international agreement to tackle the challenge of climate change.
A team led by the UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change have been locked in negotiations with other countries from across the globe to get an ambitious, fair and effective deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December.
These negotiations are taking place under the auspices of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an intergovernmental treaty developed to address climate change. Countries signed up to the UNFCCC meet annually at the Conference of the Parties, and negotiators from these countries have been attempting to resolve a huge range of complex policy issues. In 2009 alone, there will have been a total of eight weeks of negotiations in the build-up to December’s crucial summit.
The UK team represents the work of civil servants in different departments and people from all over the UK, giving voice to the growing drive to address climate change at home and across the globe.
Jan Thompson from the team said reaching agreement will be challenging, but it is possible.
"With 192 countries involved we know it won’t be an easy task. But the science shows what is at stake in poor and vulnerable countries of the world if we do nothing, and projections show Britain will suffer too.
"Success at Copenhagen remains in the balance and UK officials are going all out over the next few weeks to get an ambitious, fair and effective deal at Copenhagen to tackle climate change”, Jan said.
