Climate change

Climate change today represents a serious environmental, social and economic threat. Rising temperatures will have consequences which governments of all countries will increasingly have to face. In the wake of the  Kyoto protocol we must move forward to a common supranational strategy.

The second session of the G8 Environment Meeting will be devoted to “Climate change negotiation scenarios”. 2009 will be decisive in preparation for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, and the Syracuse Environment Meeting can make a valuable contribution to the Conference, whose success will depend on the efforts of all governments concerned.

Session II will examine the various options for the post-Kyoto architecture based on the Guidelines for Discussion document, with the additional aim of considering how to reconcile financial commitments to market stabilisation with the investment programmes required to reduce emissions.

The document presents a series of questions to guide the Ministers' discussion, such as the relationship between the economic crisis and investments in low energy technologies and the possible post-2012 climate scenarios.