UN Commends Morocco for its Great Presidency of COP22

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Patricia Espinosa, on Wednesday commended Morocco for its “great” presidency of the COP22, begun in Marrakech in November 2016.

“The Moroccan presidency was great, and we had an incredible partner with whom we delivered together the first session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA1),” said the UN official on the sidelines of the works of the 2017 Ministerial Dialogue, known as Pre-COP, she is attending in Nadi, Fiji.

In a statement to MAP correspondent, Patricia Espinosa also expressed appreciation and gratitude to Morocco for the “extraordinary” support given to Fiji in order to advance the climate change agenda, stressing her confidence in the future of the process initiated in Paris and confirmed in Marrakech.

The UN official deemed that the Pre-COP in Nadi was “successful with the involvement of all delegations who came with an open mind and a constructive attitude”. She noted however that “negotiations will be complicated in view of the nature and diversity of the issues to be raised” in Bonn, during the COP23, next November 6 through 17.

“The Pre-COP in Fiji is an important and constructive step towards another successful COP23 after Paris and Marrakech,” she said, noting that the world does not wait for the end of negotiations and that several initiatives have been put in place around the world.

The ministerial meeting, co-chaired by Salaheddine Mezouar and the Prime Minister of Fiji, Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, respectively presidents of COP22 and COP23, served as a platform for high-level political discussions on the main issues of the COP23 negotiations. It also discussed the operationalization of the Paris Accord and reaffirmed the signatory countries’ commitment to take significant steps to advance the implementation of the Marrakech roadmap.