Accra Climate Change Talks 2008.

The Accra Climate Change Talks are being held in the Ghanaian capital from 21-27 August. The meeting is part of ongoing negotiations taking place under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), which will be concluded in Copenhagen in late 2009. Specifically it will lay the foundations for a high-level climate change conference in Poland in December, when industrialised countries will be expected to announce their committments to reducing greenhous gas emissions and tackling global warming beyond the bounds of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

The UNFCC sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. In 1997 it spawned the Kyoto Protocol, a committment by 37 industrialised countries and the European community to reducing their carbon emissions by an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012. For information see the UNFCC website.