UNFCCC COP17 curtain-raiser press briefing 27 November in Durban

By United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC)

PRETORIA, South-Africa, November 21, 2011/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- A day before the opening of the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban (28 November to 9 December 2011), UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres will brief the media already on location about her expectations for the meeting.

The briefing will be at 13:00 local time in the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban on Sunday, 27 November. The press conference room 'Yellowwood' is located on level 1 of the ICC.

The European Union will also brief the press on Sunday, 27 November at 11:00 a.m., also in room "Yellowwood".

The curtain raiser briefing will be followed by a briefing on media logistics. Media accredited to the COP and unable to attend the logistics briefing will receive information in an updated "Note to correspondents"

posted on the press page of the website.

A further UNFCCC press briefing will take place the day of the opening, on

28 November, with the UNFCCC Executive Secretary and COP/CMP President Maite Nkoana-Mashabane. A provisional list of UNFCCC and third party press conferences will be published on the press page of UNFCCC's COP17 web section shortly and continuously updated. All press briefings in Durban will be webcast live and on demand.

The provisional programme of the UN Climate Change Secretariat is available online, as are the lists of side events and exhibits at the conference.

Accredited media coverning the Durban UN Climate Change Conference are advised to pick up their badges at the registration desk of the ICC before the opening of the COP, as of the morning of Friday 25 November.

_About the UNFCCC_

With 195 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

(UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 193 of the UNFCCC Parties. Under the Protocol, 37 States, consisting of highly industrialized countries and countries undergoing the process of transition to a market economy, have legally binding emission limitation and reduction commitments.

The ultimate objective of both treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.