Good preparations strengthen Africa's negotiating positions at COP19, experts

Abstract

As negotiators and experts prepare to enter the high level segment of the 19th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP19), which opened in Warsaw this week, the mood among African delegates here is one of confidence and determination to defend the continent’s interest at all costs. This upbeat mood is explained by the outcomes of at least two preparatory events that preceded COP19 – the Conference of African Environment Ministers which met in Gaborone, Botswana and the Third Annual Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA III). Both events were held in October, a month before COP19.