Took place from to 28 November to 9th December 2005
My summary:
The first one after the Kyoto Protocol came into force, therefore pretty difficult for Australia and the USA!
The ENB summary: http://www.iisd.ca/vol12/enb12291e.html
The 2005 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place between November 28 and December 9, 2005, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The conference included the 11th Conference of the Parties (COP11) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), and was the first Meeting of the Parties (MOP1) to the Kyoto Protocol since their initial meeting in Kyoto in 1997. It was one of the largest intergovernmental conferences on climate change ever. The event marked the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol on 16 February 2005. Hosting more than 10,000 delegates, it was one of Canada’s largest international events ever and the largest gathering in Montreal since Expo 67. The Montreal Action Plan was an agreement to “extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol beyond its 2012 expiration date and negotiate deeper cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions”[1] by starting negotiations, without delay on an extension of the protocol.[2] Canada’s environment minister, at the time, Stéphane Dion, said the agreement provides a “map for the future”.[3] [4]
Australia’s position, action:
AM – Montreal climate change conference set to begin
[This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2005/s1525388.htm]
AM – Wednesday, 7 December , 2005 08:18:00
Reporter: Sarah Clarke
TONY EASTLEY: After a week of backroom negotiations, ministerial leaders from 140 countries will today gather in Montreal for the biggest climate change conference since the Kyoto protocol was signed eight years ago.
Australia and the United States will attend the United Nations meeting, but they’re both opposed to extending the deal to reduce greenhouse emissions. Instead they’ll meet four of the world’s biggest polluters and push their new forum, the Asia-Pacific Climate Alliance.
Environmentalists say the timing of their meeting is a deliberate attempt to undermine the UN talks and former Liberal leader John Hewson has joined the chorus of critics describing the new Asia Pacific pact as a “joke”.
Environment reporter Sarah Clarke reports.
SARAH CLARKE: It’s the first time the 34 signatories to the Kyoto protocol have met since the deal to reduce greenhouse emissions came into force in February.
Despite some hope that Australia and the United States might join the post-Kyoto arrangement to increase targets, they’ve ruled it out. Instead, the two nations will use the gathering to hold their own talks with their new regional climate partners.
After a cancelled meeting in November, South Korea, China, India and Japan will now meet Australia and the United States for the first talks since the pact was signed five months ago.
Environment Minister Ian Campbell.
IAN CAMPBELL: What I will be doing in Montreal is meeting a number of the partners and putting the finishing touches onto what will occur and how that first meeting of the senior ministers – that will be the main objective of meeting the partners in Montreal.
SARAH CLARKE: That next meeting will be held in Sydney in January when ministerial leaders from the six member nations will gather to nut out the detail of the new arrangement.
The United States is expected to be represented by Condoleezza Rice.
Unlike Kyoto, the new pact will have no binding commitments and no targets.
Environmentalists say it’s a joke and this week’s talks are designed to undermine the UN’s conference on climate change also underway in Montreal.
See also spoiler move – AP6
2006
January – AP6 meeting
marchudson.net 