Top 20 polluters gather in Mexico
October 3, 2006
Ministers from the world's top 20 polluting nations are gathering in Mexico for talks on climate change.
The delegates will discuss possible ways to meet future energy demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern is also expected to present findings from his review into the economic impacts of climate change.
The meeting in Monterrey is the latest round of talks on the G8 Gleneagles Summit's climate action plan.
As well as ministers from G8 nations, representatives from China, India, Brazil, and South Africa will also attend the event, which is being hosted by the Mexican government.
Organisers hope the meeting will be able to make progress on a number of issues, including:
- economic challenges of tackling climate change
- alternative low-carbon technologies
- level of investment from public and private sectors
- "road map" for a low-carbon future
'Safe dialogue'
The Ministerial Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development was created by the UK when it held the presidency of the G8 in 2005.
One of the dialogue's aims was to attempt to form an agreement between industrialised and developing nations on measures to cut emissions.
The world's biggest polluter, the US, has not ratified the UN's Kyoto Protocol - the international agreement on reducing nations' greenhouse gas emissions.
President Bush rejected it, saying it would harm the US economy and fail to deliver any meaningful reductions.
Emerging economies, led by China, argued that if the world's richest nation was not part of the Kyoto targets, it was unfair to expect developing nations to be subject to legally binding limits.
The protocol's current targets are set to end in 2012, and negotiations have begun to develop a new system to succeed the framework when it expires.
The UK Environment Secretary, David Miliband, hoped the meeting, which is not part of the UN process, would be a "chance for honest, open, safe dialogue... between the 20 biggest emitting countries".
Speaking last week, Mr Miliband said: "There's discussion about which countries should be taking hard targets and our view is that the advanced industrialised countries need to lead in that respect.
"But there are other countries that will be wanting to make different sorts of contributions and that is legitimate," he added.
But he warned that the sum total of emissions had to remain within safe environmental limits, which is widely accepted to deliver a 2C (3.6F) rise in average global temperatures from pre-industrialisation levels.
Climate costs
One of the sessions at the meeting will focus on the economic consequences of climate change. Sir Nicholas Stern, former chief economist at the World Bank, will present initial findings from a review he was asked to produce by the UK government.
Sir Nicholas is expected to say that rich nations must do far more to help poor countries cope with the impacts of climate change, and that developed states must also cut emissions immediately to minimise the effects.
UK Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, addressing the UN General Assembly last month, said the Stern review would show that it was time to act.
She said: "While it will not cost the Earth to solve climate change, it will cost the Earth - literally and financially - if we don't."
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