Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to deliver this statement on behalf of the Group of 77 and China. Allow me at the outset to express our sincere appreciations to the Government of Germany for hosting this meeting, and to the Convention's Secretariat for their excellent arrangements.

Our thanks go to the chair and vice chair for their leadership and effort to respond to the mandates given to them by the AWG.

Mr Chairman, the Group reiterates the fundamental principle that developed country parties shall take the lead in combating climate change, and the establishment of ambitious quantified emission reduction commitments for the 2nd and subsequent commitment periods under the Kyoto Protocol is one of the most important actions to demonstrate this leadership.

The Group reiterates its serious concerns that the progress of the AWG-KP in achieving its clear and simple mandate to date is extremely slow. The Group reaffirms its strong position against linking the work of the AWG to extraneous issues and other processes under the convention, while recognizing that the work of the AWG-KP must take place in the context of the convention's ultimate objectives, principles and obligations.

Mr Chairman, you will recall that since Montreal in 2005, the Group has maintained and reiterated its position that Article 3.9 of the Kyoto Protocol provides a very clear mandate for the AWG-KP, to set further commitments for Annex I Parties for the 2nd and subsequent commitment periods, through amendments of Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol.

However, Mr Chairman, at the time the Group was flexible in acknowledging the argument made by Annex I Parties that setting these commitments may be better informed by analyses of mitigation potentials, the means available and methodological issues, and the Group agreed to 3 years of this analytical work, which was to be concluded in Poznan.

After 3 full years of work, the Group is extremely disappointed by the failure of the AWG-KP to reach final conclusions on the mitigation potentials, means, methodological issues and ranges of mitigation reduction potentials to be achieved by Annex I Parties in aggregate.

Against this background, the Group recalls our agreement at the resumed 6th session in Poznan that the focus and objectives of this 7th session of the AWG-KP is to adopt conclusions on the scale of emission reductions for Annex I parties in aggregate and reach conclusions on a draft amendment text to ensure that required amendments for the protocol will be forwarded for adoption by the CMP5 in due time.

The Group notes that your scenario note proposes to establish a contact group on emissions trading and project based mechanisms, a contact group on LULUCF and an "omnibus" contact group on the other issues of gases, sectors, sources, common metrics, sectoral approaches and legal issues.

However, Mr Chairman, given that the primary objectives of this session are to; firstly, adopt conclusions on the scale of emission reductions for Annex I parties in aggregate and, secondly, to reach conclusions on a draft "legal" amendment text, the Group would like to express its concern that the organization of work proposed in your scenario note is not built around and focused on delivering on these primary objectives of this 7th session of the AWG.

To be very specific, Mr Chairman, the Group is concerned that the scenario note only provides for the handling of the first primary objective to adopt conclusions on the scale of emission reductions for Annex I parties in aggregate (Agenda Item 3) in the second plenary session with no provision for any process to advance and adopt conclusions on the matter.

Further, Mr Chairman, the Group is concerned that the scenario note only provides for the handling of the second primary objective to reach conclusions on a draft amendment text is only one issue within the omnibus contact group and that there is only a provision for consultations on "ways to address legal matters during the course of the year" without any other more formal process to advance and adopt conclusions on the matter at this session.

Mr Chairman, we trust that given this primary focus on these 2 objectives you will be able to establish the contact groups in line with the objectives and to enable the AWG-KP to fulfill its work by the end of 2009 in accordance with its mandate.

In addition the Group welcomes the establishment of a contact group to continue deliberation on the issue of potential consequences of spill-over effects, the workshop on this issue on Tuesday will be very helpful in providing further clarity for the discussion.

Mr. Chairman,

The group recognizes that a number of recent scientific studies have indicated that climate change impacts are increasing at a rate that exceeds the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report projections. The Group hopes and fully expects that in view of this new information spirit of far greater urgency and ambition will guide the deliberations of the group on mitigation targets for Annex I parties.

Mr. Chairman, the Group pledges its commitment to engage constructively in these wide-ranging discussions aimed at our primary objective of adopting conclusions on the scale of emission reductions for Annex I parties in aggregate and reach conclusions on a draft amendment text as required by the very clear legal mandate of Article 3.9 of the Kyoto Protocol.

I thank you.