OPENING STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF THE GROUP OF 77 AND CHINA BY H.E. AMB. DR. JOHN W. ASHE, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA TO THE UNITED NATIONS, AT THE OPENING PLENARY OF THE FIFTH SESSION OF THE AD HOC WORKING GROUP ON ARTICLE 3.9 OF THE KYOTO PROTOCOL (AWG KP) (Accra, Ghana, 21 August 2008)

Mr. Chairman,

The Group of 77 and China would like to thank the Government and people of Ghana for their warm hospitality and excellent arrangements for our meeting. We would also like to thank the UNFCCC secretariat for the outstanding preparations for these sessions.

The Group of 77 and China welcomes the opportunity to advance deliberation on the issue of further commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol. We would like to emphasise that as we to deliberate here in Accra over means, methodological issues and spillover effects we not forget that the legal mandate of Article 3.9, is the focus of our work, is specifically to set further quantified emission reduction commitments for Annex I Parties for the second and subsequent commitment periods through the amendment of Annex B of the Protocol.

Mr. Chairman,

We would like to urge all Parties to focus our negotiations on issues that are in line with the mandate of the AWG, that are intended to and have the potential to advance quantified emission reduction commitments and not to go beyond the legal mandate of this Working Group. We should therefore avoid introducing extraneous issues which could distract our attention, and delay final agreement.

We would also like to urge all parties to keep firmly at the front of our consciousness the implications of delay in agreeing further, credible and deep quantified emission reduction commitments for Annex I Parties and in moving to implementation on the agreed schedule.

The timetable to guide the completion of our work is clear to the point of being crystal. We must conclude on the means available to Annex I Parties to reach deeper Quantified Emissions Limitation and Reduction Objectives (QUELRO's) and the consideration of the relevant methodological issues. The Group reiterates the importance of urgently completing our negotiation of Annex I Party commitments for the second commitment period, as scheduled by the latest by 2009.

Mr. Chairman,

The Group of 77 and China looks forward and commits itself to a constructive session here in Accra in order to come to conclusions on means, methodological issues and spillover effects. Bearing in mind the cautionary note that we be brief, I will end here.

Thank you.