Two days of informal consultations took place in Rabat, Morocco on 9 September, 2016. Invited by the Moroccan incoming Presidency of the 22nd Conference of the Parties (COP22/CMP12)140 delegates and climate negotiators from over 50 countries kicked off the closed-door meeeting to advance on discussions around key issues.
 
The opening session to the two-day closed-door consultations included remarks from Salaheddine Mezouar, COP22 President and Morocco Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Patricia Espinosa, Executive Secretary, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Aziz Mekouar, COP22 Ambassador for Multilateral Negotiations, Hakima El Haite, COP22 Special Envoy and Morocco High-Level Climate Champion. French COP21 Climate Ambassador Laurence Tubiana was also on hand as well as a video message to delegates from COP21 President Segolene Royal.
 

Like COP22 President Salaheddine Mezouar, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa also stressed the need to make significant progress on the $100 billion roadmap and for countries to increase their capacity to fight global warming.  The Executive Secretary stated that “success for Marrakech means carrying the historic Paris Agreement forward and implementing it to transition towards a low-carbon economy”.