Conference: "Climate Change, a new Challenge for Development Cooperation?"

Climate change requires urgent action. We must prevent further aggravation of climate change by the control of the quantity of greenhouse gases that we expulse in the atmosphere (mitigation) and in the same time, to adapt ourselves to the negative consequences of the current and future climate change (adaptation). Although the poor countries, which are the most vulnerable to the climate change, are the less responsible for greenhouse gases emissions, they are the first and the most affected victims of the direct effects of climate change (increasing of the average temperature and water level, natural disasters) and its consequences on biodiversity, land erosion, food security, public health and poverty. This conference is intended to encourage a large exchange of views on these issues, with a view to come out of with a concrete policy proposal for the Minister of Development Cooperation. Professor J-P van Ypersele, member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), will chair the conference and will incorporate the inputs from this conference to a future policy proposal to the attention of the Minister for Development Cooperation.

Speakers: Charles Michel, Minister for Development Cooperation Prof. J.-P. van Ypersele, Vice-chair of the IPCC WG II, UCL