The Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism (MENT), Philda Nani Kereng has travelled to Spain to represent Botswana at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 25) held in Madrid, Spain from the 8th to the 13th December 2019.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change started on the 2nd December and will end on the 13th December 2019.

The Parties meet annually to review progress in the implementation of the Convention, where other instruments that support its establishment are proposed, evaluated and approved.

The Ministers are expected to reach agreements and provide direction to the technical negotiating teams. The conference is designed to take the next crucial steps in the UN climate change process. Following agreement on the implementation guidelines of the Paris Agreement at COP 24 in Poland last year, a key objective is to complete several matters with respect to the full operationalisation of the Paris Climate Change Agreement.

The conference furthermore serves to build momentum ahead of 2020, the year in which countries have committed to submit new and updated national climate action plans. Crucial climate action work will be taken forward in areas including finance, the transparency of climate action, forests and agriculture, technology, capacity building, loss and damage, indigenous peoples, cities, oceans and gender.

At the Conference of the Parties (COP 25), the parties will review climate action and science, ensuring an inclusive process for all parties and the formal integration of the scientific world and the private sector. The Minister is accompanied by senior officials from the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food Security, Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Academia, Researchers, Civil Society and Local Authorities. The Minister is expected to be back in the country on 15th December 2019.