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German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel
(3rdL) stands together with participants of the G8 2007 Environment
Ministers Meeting in front of the former Prussian residence Schloss
Sanssouci in the eastern German city of Potsdam March 16, 2007. The
picture shows front row from Rto2ndL: Head of the US Environmental
Protection Agency Stephen L.Johnson, Canada's Environment Minister
John Baird, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, India's
Environment Minister Shri A. Raja, Executive Director of the United
Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Achim Steiner, Italian
Environmement Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio and French
Environment Minister Nelly Olin. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
Climate change, specifically finding agreements that will lead
to a successor to the Kyoto protocol, is the focus of a meeting of
environmental ministers and officials from 13 countries in Potsdam
near Berlin.
The meeting will seek to find agreements between G8 and emerging
economies that would help provide successor agreements to the 1997
Kyoto treaty, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. The
environment ministers from the eight industrialized countries (G8)
as well as officials from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South
Africa will attend the two-day meeting.
The Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding targets for
developed countries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other
gases blamed for global warming, will expire in 2012.
"The year 2007 is a decisive one for international climate
control," Gabriel said, adding that this gathering would seek to
identify obstacles on the way to a post-Kyoto deal.
The G8 bloc and emerging economies would also discuss the best
way to remove these obstacles, Gabriel said.
In addition to climate change, biodiversity will also be on the
agenda of the meeting.
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(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2007)
