GERMANY: As G8 environment ministers prepare to meet at Potsdam, German minister Sigmar Gabriel vows the talks will get down to business on clmate change

As environment ministers prepare to meet in Germany this week, the German minister vows the talks will get down to business on clmate change. The aim of a meeting of key environment ministers in Potsdam this week is not to produce documents, but to tackle climate change and explore ways of bridging the gap between industrialised and developing countries, Germany's Environment Minister said on Thursday (March 15). Sigmar Gabriel told journalists at a news onference in the German city: "We don't have the intention to enter the negotiations with specific goals or documents because we don't believe that would currently be successful," he said. The two-day meeting of environment ministers from the Group of Eight (G8) industrialised nations and top developing countries will be held on Friday and Saturday. "Our goal in Potsdam is to lay down as clearly as possible the interests and the successes but also the deficits in international climate politics," Gabriel said Some U.N. officials say the disagreements are so intense there may be no deal on a negotiating mandate in Bali this December when the world's environment ministers will meet again. The director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Achim Steiner, in an interview with Reuters praised Germany's efforts to combat global warming. "In my view Germany, together with Europe is once again at the vanguard to deal with climate change," he said. "The German government with the current EU presidency and the G8 summit in June has enormous possibilities this year to set incentives for international climate negotiations. " Gabriel said governments around the world must agree before the end of the year on a plan to negotiate an extension of the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The G8 members are Germany, the United States, Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia. Also attending the two-day meeting will be officials from China, India, South Africa, Brazil and Mexico.

ITN Source | March 16, 2007

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