Monday, December 7th

COPENHAGEN - Today marks the opening day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is supposed to come up with an agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol from 1997. Almost 200 countries will come together to develop agreements targeting climate change, particularly the reduction of greenhouse gases and an end to deforestation.

Today, the International Federation of Liberal Youth (IFLRY) received official observer status with the UNFCCC and is present with an official delegation of 100 young liberals from different parts of the world. The IFLRY delegation is led by IFLRY Climate Change Programme Manager Stephan Korte and IFLRY President Bart Woord, with the support of our local hosts Radikaler Ungdom '94 and Venstres Ungdom. The delegation will meet on a daily basis to discuss the programme of the day and the progress of the conference negotiations. In addition, a Liberal Networking Event is to be held on the 14th of December in order to bring together all liberals at the Conference.

Bart Woord, IFLRY President: "This is the first time that IFLRY is present at a major UN event with such a large delegation and we are setting the stage for a future in which we want to have a strong liberal voice on international platforms. I believe that this initiative brings great value to the member organizations present and particularly the young liberals who are able to experience the nuts and bolts of a global diplomatic conference."

Stephan Korte, IFLRY Climate Change Programme Manager: "We are proud that the first large project of our Climate Change Programe is now up an running. While being confident that the IFLRY COP 15 Experience will be a big success in terms of providing a unique capacity building opportunity for our delegates, we are aware that there remains a lot to be done to ensure that the Conference will eventually come up with a fair, ambitious and binding agreement. We are here to make our liberal contribution, mainly focusing on promoting solutions that make full use of market mechanisms and involve the private sector in all aspects combating climate change."
 

If you want to receive further information or want to keep up to date with the proceedings of the IFLRY delegation at the COP-15, please contact climatechange@iflry.org or call +31615624560 (Bart). You can also follow us via Twitter.