2001 United Nations Climate Change Conference


The 2001 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place from October 29 to November 10, 2001 in Marrakech, Morocco. The conference included the 7th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The negotiators wrapped up the work on the Buenos Aires Plan of Action, finalizing most of the operational details and setting the stage for nations to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. The completed package of decisions is known as the Marrakech Accords. The United States delegation maintained its observer role, declining to participate actively in the negotiations. Other parties continued to express hope that the United States would re-engage in the process at some point and worked to achieve ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by the requisite number of countries to bring it into force. The date of the World Summit on Sustainable Development was put forward as a target to bring the Kyoto Protocol into force. The World Summit on Sustainable Development was to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The main decisions at COP 7 included: