Brussels, 07/09/2007 (Agence Europe) - Energy and Environment Ministers from the twenty largest energy consuming countries - the industrialised nations of the G8 and the major emerging economies - will meet in Berlin from 9-11 September for a further session of the Gleneagles dialogue on climate change.
This ministerial meeting on climate change, clean energy and sustainable development is the third of its kind to be held within the framework of the informal dialogue opened between the world's most heavily industrialised countries and Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa to discuss innovative ideas and new measures for tackling climate change and ensure that the Gleneagles action plan, adopted in Scotland in July 2005 (see EUROPE 8987), is being implemented. Ministers will also have their sights trained on the formal launch of the forthcoming international negotiations (in Bali from 3-14 December) which, under the aegis of the United Nations, aims to reach an agreement (the EU hopes in 2009) on a general regime to combat climate change beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.
European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and Mogens Peter Carl, Director General of Environment at the Commission, representing Commissioner Stavros Dimas, will take part in the dialogue. Mr Piebalgs will launch a new platform for international cooperation on energy efficiency, as requested by the March European Council. This aim of this platform will be to assist in making the objectives of the Gleneagles action plan - supporting the development of clean technology and providing a stable and transparent environment for large-scale private sector investment - come to fruition and open the way for a new model of systematic cooperation between developed and developing countries. It will thus be a complementary instrument to the United Nations framework convention on climate change.
The previous session of the informal dialogue was held in Sweden in June (see EUROPE 9443), just after the G8 Heiligendamm summit, which was held under German presidency. The German ministerial meeting will precede the meeting, convened by the United States this autumn, of the 15 largest contributors to global warming and the high-level meeting on climate change in New York on 24 September, organised by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to provide the political impetus necessary for progress to be made in Bali. (an)