1. The 20th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP20) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will take place in Lima, Peru, from December 1 through 12.

◦ The meeting will bring together delegates from 195 parties to the UNFCCC. The delegation from the Republic of Korea will be composed of head delegate and Minister of Environment Yoon Seong-kyu, alternate head delegate and Ambassador for Climate Change of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Choi Jai-chul, and officials from the Office for Government Policy Coordination, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport.

2. The COP20 will focus on the new climate regime to be applied from the year 2020; ways to step up actions to reduce gas emissions until before 2020; and ways to raise climate fund to support developing countries’ efforts to respond to climate change with. It will also cover various agenda items, including new market mechanisms, the development and transfer of relevant technology, capacity-building, strengthening the role of forests as carbon sinks and multilateral evaluation.

3. In particular, with only about one year left until the COP21 in Paris, the deadline for concluding the negotiations for a new climate regime, negotiations will accelerate at the Lima meeting in order to draw up a draft of the new climate agreement. Under the circumstances, the parties are expected to actively discuss such sensitive issues as imposing differentiated mandatory burdens on different countries, setting a long-term goal of reducing gas emissions and legal issues.

◦ Part of the main content of the new climate regime is the post-2020 intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs), which will be submitted starting from the first quarter of 2015. The Lima meeting is expected to cover in detail the scope of INDCs, their review procedure, and ways to renew commitment to reducing gas emissions on a regular basis.

4. With regard to the main agenda items of the Lima meeting, -- stepping up actions to reduce gas emissions until before 2020 and ways to raise climate fund to support developing countries’ efforts to respond to climate change with -- the participants will focus specifically on continually seeking policy options in energy efficiency, renewable energy and other areas with great potential for reducing greenhouse emissions, as well as ways to raise climate fund in the long term.

5. The ROK, in a bid for many countries to participate in the negotiations and for an effective new climate regime to be produced from them, will play a bridging role between developed and developing countries, thereby contributing constructively to the negotiations.

◦ In addition, at the meeting, the ROK, as the host country of the Green Climate Fund (GCF) Secretariat, will inform the international community of its pledge of a maximum of 100 million US dollars and other efforts to assist the organization; and highlight the need to raise climate fund through the GCF, encouraging the international community to support developing countries’ efforts to respond to climate change. 


               Spokesperson and Deputy Minister for Public Relations of MOFA

* unofficial translation