Lima, 18 July 2013 (ANDINA). The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations, known as the COP20, that will take place in Peru in 2014, will aim to reach an international binding agreement on climate change, that can replace the Kyoto Protocol, pointed out today the Minister of Environment, Manual Pulgar-Vidal.

During the launch of the COP20, Pulgar-Vidal emphasised that our country will take over the presidency of this coordination institution at the end of this year and will have the responsibility of organising the global largest event on climate change on December 3-14, 2013.

According to him, this event will be the largest event organised by Peru; 15 to 20 thousands people are expected, including government representatives and environment-related organisations.

He also explained that one of the challenges the country will face while holding the COP20 presidency will be to facilitate the negotiations to reach a climate change agreement that can be approved by the member States of the United Nations in 2015, during the COP21 that will take place in Paris, France.

“We propose a binding agreement that will enter into force in 2012 with a 2 degree Celsius of global warming limit; some think it should be 1.5 to avoid catastrophic consequences”, he mentioned.

The importance of this agreement, if it becomes a reality, lies on the fact that it will replace the Kyoto Protocol, which ended in 2012.

To this end, Pulgar-Vidal explained that Peru will work jointly with Poland, COP19 host in November of this year, and with France, that will organise COP21.

“Lima will be the essential link in this chain, receiving the presidency from Poland and handling it to France in 2015, possibly with a consolidated draft and I hope we can reach an agreement through a protocol”, he pointed out.

At a country level, the Minister of Environment mentioned that we will arrive to the event with an environmental agenda and the Independent Association for Latin America and the Caribbean (AILAC) recognised by the Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This association includes Peru, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Panama.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Edda Rivas, and the Ministry of Tourism and International Trade, Jose Luis Silvia attended the COP20 launch in the morning.

The Foreign Minister mentioned that the organisation of the COP20 will be a priority for the foreign policy of the country.

Source (in Spanish): ANDINA

Watch COP20 Launch in Lima (in Spanish): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SDcQSP1Yl0