Mr. Chairman,

At this critical juncture of our negotiations, the Group of 77 and China reaffirm their willingness to engage fully in substantive negotiations that will allow us to arrive at an equitable outcome in Copenhagen that would fulfil the mandate of the Bali Action Plan to enable the full, effective and sustained implementation of the Convention, in accordance with its provisions and principles.

We reiterate our strong call for negotiations in an open, transparent and inclusive, and above all, Party-driven process that would allow the voices of the smallest to the biggest developing countries among us to be heard and taken into account

We reaffirm that the UNFCCC  process is the only legitimate channel of these negotiations, and denounce all means that would place the determination of the agreed outcome in Copenhagen in the hands of a few countries, be this at the highest political level.

We reject all attempts to undermine and weaken the two legally. binding instruments dealing with this grave environmental challenge that affect the lives and livelihoods of our populations who, while contributing the least to this problem, are the ones who, daily, suffer the most from the adverse effects of climate change.

We deplore all efforts that would shirk the responsibilities to fulfil the legal mandate for agreement on a second commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol with deep emission reductions targets as called for by science, and shift those responsibilities to the developing countries, by altering the balance of common but differentiated responsibilities under the Convention.

We call on developed country Parties to face their moral, ethical, political and legally-binding commitments under the Convention, in particular those related to the provision of new and additional, adequate and predictable financial resources and the development and transfer of technology and capacity-building

We underline that for an equitable agreed outcome in Copenhagen, it is essential to include in any agreed outcome adequate provisions for  the establishment of mechanisms under the Convention for the operationalization of the financial mechanism under the authority of the COP, for meeting full costs of  concrete adaptation actions of developing countries, and for an effective development and transfer of technology.

In turn, we will continue to pursue our sustainable development efforts, through growth and economic development that would cause the least damage to the environment, recognizing that the extent to which we will  be able to fulfil our commitments under the Convention will depend on the extent  to which developed country Parties will fulfil their commitments related to the provision of financial resources and transfer of technology, furthermore recognizing that poverty eradication and social and economic development are the first and overriding priorities of developing countries.

I would like to assure you that the Group will continue to support the LCA process and engage constructively in this session and next session to achieve the aspired outcomes in Copenhagen