Brussels, 07/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Climate change, industrial development and air pollution are at the heart of the 15th annual meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development of the United Nations, which has just opened in New York for a week (7-11 May), to identify the key political measures which will help to speed up the implementation of the actions of governments the world over in these fields.
European Commissioner for the Environment Stavros Dimas will be taking part in the ministerial segment of this international meeting (9-11 May), which, it is hoped, will see a conclusion to the round of talks started two years ago.
The European Commission hopes that the concomitance between this ministerial meeting, which will be largely devoted to the climate, and technical discussions started at the same time in Bonn (7-18 May), as part of the United Nations framework Convention on climate change, will provide the political impetus which is so necessary for the creation of a consensus on stepping up the global fight against planetary warming post-2012. The ministers in New York and the experts in Bonn will both be preparing the ground with one eye to the Bali conference next December, which will see the launch of international negotiations on this future global regime for a more radical fight against rising temperatures. (an)