Brussels, 14/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - EU Competitiveness ministers moved towards reflection on the way climate change will impact on competitiveness at their most recent Council meeting in Luxembourg (10 October, see EUROPE 9044). Commissioner Gunter Verheugen told reporters the ministers had had an important informal discussion over dinner to get the ball rolling. The minister welcomed news that the Commission will be setting up a high level group on competitiveness, energy and the climate, and the climate change and competitiveness issue will be high on the agenda of the EU's summits with Russia, China and India.
A high-level international conference will be held in Brussels at the Solvay Library on 18 October in a similar vein, entitled 'Beyond Kyoto: Searching for a sustainable energy-environment balance'. Organised by Etienne Davignon's Friends of Europe think tank, in cooperation with Enel and ExxonMobil, it will look at energy in Europe, the impact of today's' level of R&D on climate change and the global energy framework needed after 2012 (end of the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period). EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, Fulvio Conti, CEO and General Manager of Enel, Kiyotaka Akasaka, Deputy Secretary General of the OECD and Klaus Topfer, UN Under-Secretary General and Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme are among the political and business leaders taking part.