DECISION ON THE AFRICAN COMMON POSITION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Doc. Assembly/AU/8(XII) Add.6
The Assembly:
TAKES NOTE of the Declaration of the Algerian delegation on the deliberations of the Conference of African Ministers of Environment on climate change, held in Algiers from 19 to 23 2008;
RECALLS that it is in his capacity as Chairperson of the African Group, during the Bali Conference on Climate Change, that Algeria organized the Conference of African Ministers of Environment on Climate Change;
APPROVES the Algiers Declaration on Climate Change adopted in the form of the Common African Position to serve as the platform of the Common African Position for African countries in the negotiation process for the new global climate change regime for the period after 2012, the year of expiry of the Kyoto Protocol;
RECALLS that the international negotiations on climate change are expected to be held under the auspices of the United Nations;
EMPHASIZES that the global carbon trading mechanisms that are expected to emerge from international negotiations on climate change should give Africa an opportunity to demand and get compensation for the damage to its economy caused by global warming and UNDERLINES in this regard the fact that despite contributing virtually nothing to global warming Africa has been one of the primary victims of its consequences;
APPROVES that Africa needs to be represented by one delegation which is empowered to negotiate on behalf of all Member States, with the mandate to ensure that resource flow to Africa is not reduced, and MANDATES the Commission to work out modalities of such representation and report to the next ordinary session of the Assembly in July 2009;
INVITES AU Member States to promote the Algiers Declaration within the framework of their participation in the World Summit on Climate Change, scheduled to be held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009;
REQUESTS the Commission to make the Algiers Declaration a working document on the issue of climate changes.