Assistant Secretary Karsner Represents the United States at the 2007 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

December 20, 2007

Assistant Secretary Alexander Karsner attended the Thirteenth Conference of the Parties (COP 13) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Nusa Dusa, Bali, Indonesia, which ran from December 3rd to the 14th.

The Thirteenth Conference of the 192 Parties to the UNFCCC, and the third meeting of the 176 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol were expected to result in negotiations on a climate change deal that will take effect in 2012. See the full text of the Bali Action Plan (PDF 125 KB). Download Adobe Reader.

Assistant Secretary Karsner served in the U.S. delegation to the COP 13. The U.S. is signatory to the UNFCCC and has financial, policy, programmatic, and technological obligations under the treaty. See Karsner's presentation to the conference (PDF 1.08 MB).

James Connaughton, Chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality, also gave a presentation at the conference. See the full text of his speech on the White House's Press Secretary Briefings page, including remarks from Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs Paula Dobriansky, and Connaughton's PowerPoint presentation (PDF 465 KB).

Thomas Friedman, New York Times columnist, described their contributions: "And then something unexpected happened. For 90 minutes, Andy Karsner, who runs the Department of Energy’s renewable energy programs, James Connaughton, who heads White House climate policy, and their colleagues put on a PowerPoint performance that was riveting in its understanding of the climate problem and the technologies needed to solve it." (New York Times, December 19, 2007)

The COP 13 conference brought together representatives of more than 180 countries, with observers from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations and the media. Media attention to this conference was worldwide.

For more information on the COP 13 event, see the UNFCCC Web site.