The world is now just three days away from the 21st Conference on Climate Change (COP21), bringing together delegates from 196 parties, including 195 countries and the European Union, in the northwest of Paris in an attempt to reach a binding global agreement on climate for the first time in more than 20 years of United Nations negotiations.
COP21, which will begin on Monday 30 November 2015, is expected to attract nearly 50,000 participants, including 25,000 official delegates from governments, intergovernmental organisations, United Nations agencies, NGOs and civil society. Organised under the French Presidency, will aim to produve a binding global climate agreement which would seek to keep global warming below 2°C. The agreement will succeed the Kyoto Protcol from 2020.
The first Monday will be dedicated to some 150 Heads of State and Government who will be officially launching COP21 with a call to action against global warming. The Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Xavier Bettel, will speak on behalf of the Grand Duchy. During the first week of COP21, negotiators will meet within the UN Working Group to continue their work, started in the beginning of the year, of achieving a readable negotiating text, displaying clear and precise options.
On Monday 7 December 2015, the ministerial segment of COP21 will be opened and Ministers of the Environment and Climate, representing 196 parties, will take over in order to reach a final agreement by the end of the week. At COP21, the European Union will be represented by Luxembourg Minister of the Environment, Carole Dieschbourg, and European Commissioner for Climate and Energy, Miguel Arias Cañete. The Minister will be accompanied by a Luxembourg delegation, consisting of twenty people from several Luxembourg Ministries.
Secretary of State for Sustainable Development, Camille Gira, will also be in paris from the second week of COP21.
