Kasa prepares for Doha debriefing

Representatives of 39 civil society organizations (CSOs) and six state institutions are expected to gather in Accra on Thursday for a postmortem of the 18^th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which ended last December in the Qatari capital city of Doha.

The debriefing meeting is being organised by Kasa Ghana to also discuss ideas for strengthening a Climate Change and Environment Working Group (CCEWG) formed in 2009 to promote CSOs coordinated engagement on climate change issues.

Describing the meeting as crucial, Kasa Ghana says the meeting would specifically seek to: provide feedback on the outcomes of the COP 18 to CSOs; discuss key lessons for improving participation, feedback and follow up actions on the COP processes; and discuss the way forward for the CCEWG as a platform for coordinated engagement on climate change.

Generally, CSOs which have commented on the outcome of COP18 have described it as another failure by countries accounting for the largest share of global pollution to commit to efforts at reducing emissions.

In Doha, Russia, New Zealand and Japan refused to take targets in a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol while Canada joined the United States on the list of countries which have refused to join the Protocol.