Earth Journalism Network

Press Release - October 8, 2009

Historic press briefing by US, Chinese, AOSIS, LDC, African climate change negotiators

Bangkok, Thailand -- Senior climate change negotiators from all of the major negotiating blocks today made an unprecedented joint appearance before journalists at an event organized by the Climate Change Media Partnership in association with the Com+ Alliance.

The negotiators included chief US negotiator Jonathan Pershing, Ambassador Qingtai Yu who is China's special climate change envoy, and Ambassador Dessima Williams, representing Grenada and the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS).

Other speakers were David Lesolle of Botswana, Quamrul Chowdhury of Bangladesh (and vice-chair of the Least Developed Countries negotiating bloc) and Karl Falkenberg of the European Commission.

The press briefing took place at UN Framework Convention on Climate Change talks being held in Bangkok this week, and can be viewed online. Several observers noted they had never seen the chief delegates from all these climate negotiating blocs sitting down together to discuss their views in public.

The Climate Change Media Partnership was set up by Internews’ Earth Journalism Network, the International Institute for Environment and Development and Panos to support journalists from developing nations to report on climate change.