Climate Change, Environment, Europe, Headlines

ENVIRONMENT-EUROPE: Britain, Germany Seek Lead on Climate Change

Sanjay Suri

LONDON, Nov 1 2004 (IPS) - Britain and Germany will seek to take joint lead on initiatives to contain climate change at a conference in Berlin this week.

The conference to take place at the British embassy in Berlin Wednesday will be opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The Queen will be on a state visit to Germany.

A conference of youth and young scientists from Britain and Germany will be held a day earlier.

”Britain and Germany can work together to create models for others to follow,” Alison Lucas from The Climate Group, a Britain-based group told IPS Monday. The Climate Group will have its German launch in Berlin this week.

Britain and Germany can work productively together because ”they are seen as leaders on this issue globally,” Lucas said. Both countries have taken strong measures at national levels, she said.

The particularly strong claims from Germany and Britain arise because by official accounts Germany has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 19 percent by 2002, and Britain by 15 percent related to 1990 levels. Greenhouse gases, principally carbon dioxide and methane produced through burning of fossil fuels for energy are believed to cause atmospheric warming leading to climate change.

The two countries have accounted for 97 percent of carbon dioxide reductions in the EU, according to the official statement on the conference.

Building the climate conference into the Queen’s visit is seen as a measure of the seriousness both governments are giving to their initiatives on climate change.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he will make climate change a leading issue when Britain takes on G8 presidency next year, along with initiatives on Africa. G8 is a group of eight leading industrialised countries (the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Russia and Japan).

The Anglo-German conference is expected to lead to a joint action programme for climate protection. ”One goal of the conference is to develop a medium-term programme for British-German collaboration on climate change action and new energy technologies,” says an official statement on the conference.

”A key consideration will be to ensure that any new actions add value to existing activities at national, EU (European Union) and wider international level,” it adds.

The conference will bring together scholars, policy makers, industry and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). It will be moderated by United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) chief executive Klaus Toepfer.

The conference will discuss the social, economic and environmental impacts of climate change, setting targets and timetables for climate protection beyond Kyoto, technical and social innovation, key innovations to reduce global warming, and how to attract investment into new technologies.

The conference will aim also to set close networking among British and German scientists and officials. Britain’s chief scientific adviser, Sir David King, and Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber, research director at the Tyndall Centre at the University of East Anglia in Britain will be among the representatives from Britain.

Representatives from the German foreign ministry, its environment ministry, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and the German Research Foundation will work with them to give shape to an Anglo-German lead on climate protection.

”The emphasis will be on finding solutions rather than adding another erudite assessment of the problem of climate change,” according to the conference statement. The conference is expected to deliver a draft programme for Anglo-German collaboration through joint ventures and model projects over the next five to ten years.

Next year will see the launching of negotiations to begin a new period for implementation of the Kyoto Protocol (beyond 2008-2012) and ”there is real potential for an Anglo-German partnership to influence the outcome,” the conference statement says. The protocol was agreed in Kyoto in Japan in 1997 for developed countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions.