The primary goal of the annual conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and to the Kyoto Protocol held in Warsaw from 11 to 22 November 2013 was to discuss the policy concepts related to the new global climate agreement.

In addition to preparing the document expected to be ratified at the Paris Conference in 2015, the forum also provided an opportunity for outlining the recent success of Hungarian climate policy. Hungary was represented by Minister of State for Climate Policy Attila Imre Horváth at the conference.

At the Warsaw summit, the European Union represented the interests of Member States based on a mandate assigned to it at the Environmental Council on 14 October, 2013. According to this stance, the EU must strive for a flexible legal framework laying the emphasis on global responsibility so as to ensure that the new global climate agreement to be passed in 2015 should genuinely reflect the levels of economic and social development and determine the commitments of participating countries according to these. Due to climate policy tension between fast developing countries (BRICS) and the most developed OECD states outside the Union, negotiations continued to be fruitless for considerable time, but the efforts of the Polish presidency in office of the Framework Convention and the European Union helped bring about an agreement in Warsaw that made the first step towards a new and more just sharing of responsibility.

The agreement was facilitated by significant advance in establishing a financing framework serving to support developing countries as well as in setting objectives related to the adjustment to climate change and putting these into the new framework. In addition, several developed countries provided instant financial aid for the speediest possible implementation of the targets.

At the negotiations of the conference stretching beyond schedule until Saturday night, successful decisions were finally reached, making the Warsaw summit a milestone towards the Paris summit in 2015. Both the developed and developing UN states accepted that commitments for the new regime to begin in 2020 should be made if possible by the first quarter of 2015. There were also important achievements reached incorporated into a new mechanism for the treatment of climate loss and damage in the developing world and participants furthermore agreed upon a financial framework programme to support forestation.

From the point of view of Hungary, an important achievement of the UN climate summit is the strengthening of the policy of adjustment to climate change at the global and EU levels. Hungary has worked out the framework for national adjustment, to be soon put up for discussion in Parliament as part of the National Climate Change Strategy. The Warsaw climate summit reinforced one of the fundamental pillars of the renewed Hungarian climate policy according to which adjustment to and preparation for climate change and cutting emissions were climate political issues of equal weight.

At a panel discussion organised at the initiative of Bloomberg and attended by President of the Conference, Minister of Environment of Poland Marcin Korolec and Executive Secretary of UNFCCC Christiana Figueres, Attila Imre Horváth outlined the Hungarian achievements. Participants of the discussion shared the view that the voluntary, partnership-based participation of the private sector in climate protection efforts was gaining increasing weight. There were several good practices presented for the cooperation of the commercial sector, the industry and local communities. Hungary shared its earlier widely acclaimed achievements in the Green Investment Scheme, the innovation subsidies for SMEs, the transformation of the public utility sector and related to the Global Water Conference, in order to contribute through these to working out the details for a successful agreement to be reached by 2015.

(Ministry of National Development, Communications Department)