G8 Environment Ministers Meeting

Syracuse will be hosting the environment ministers’ meeting, the fourth of the ministerial meetings scheduled from the beginning of the year up to the Summit on La Maddalena, from 22 to 24 April. Countering climate change and the preservation of biodiversity will be two of the main items on the agenda.

In addition to the ministers from the G8 countries, the Czech Republic, in its capacity as European Union duty president, and the European Commission will also be attending. The summit is also being extended to representatives from China, India, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, the Republic of Korea and Egypt, and Denmark, which is to host the United Nations Conference on the Climate next December, has been invited as well. A number of international organisations and representatives from civil society will also be present.

The Syracuse meeting’s mission is to send out an important political message on biodiversity and to ease dialogue on climate change in the approach to the Copenhagen conference, whose job it will be to lay down the global strategy for the post-Kyoto era.

The meeting will provide an opportunity for an international exchange of views on issues including the balanced use of natural resources and the investments that might be made in new technologies.
Indeed, any switch to a more sustainable economy calls for global financial commitment and a sharing of technological know-how, first and foremost for the emerging countries, which are more vulnerable to the impact of climate change.
The current economic crisis must not divert attention away from fighting climate change, but provide an opportunity for embarking on the road to long-term sustainable development.

The Syracuse Environment Ministers’ Summit will be preceded by a more technical Forum on Low Carbon Content Technologies to be held in Trieste from 3 to 5 April 2009.