Germany has leading role to play in climate change talks

Environment Minister Norbert Roettgen, commenting on the outcome of the 40-nation summit, told Germany news media that it had been “a contribution to making success possible again”, adding that the importance of the summit’s outcomes were significant because it laid the groundwork or foundation for further agreements on the most important issues.

Plans for the summit in Koenigswinter were initiated by Chancellor Merkel in December of 2009 when she attended the UN’s climate conference in Copehagen, that summit had closed with many unresolved issues on which the Petersberg Climate Dialogue has now made some progress.

When pressed by reporters on what progress was made, Roettgen said that agreements had been reached regarding deforestation, as well as transferring “climate technology” such as technology that increases efficiency, from developed to developing countries.

In speaking about the UN’s climate conference, Roettgen said that the conference had ended in deadlock, with delegates unable to reach an agreement on producing an international climate treaty. Eventually, as a compromise, a weak and practically useless declaration of intent to act on climate change, this was called the Copenhagen Accord and was largely dismissed by environmental groups as worthless in the real world.

By holding the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Germany hoped to resolve some of the “distrust” that was fostered at the UN conference. The summit was attended by the environmental ministers and other delegates from around 40 nations, far less than the 190-nation UN summit, but the purpose of this one was different and was aimed at re-examining some of the sticking points that gave rise to the Copenhagen Accord.

There are deep rifts in the way countries wish to proceed with the problem of climate change and environmental protection and this depends largely upon the window through which they are seeing climate change, with some skeptical as to whether it is occurring at all. What is certain is that something must be done.

New emerging powers such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa, regional powers representing other developing countries, feel that climate technology needs to be aggressively transferred to developing nations so that they can develop in conjunction with eco-friendly policies, while industrialized nations are unable to agree on how or to what extent this should be done. In addition, there is an inability to agree on a timeframe for the reduction of waste emissions.

In relation to these ongoing problems and the conference held in Germany the country’s Environment Minister said it had “proved to be a platform of constructive discussions”.

Greenpeace climate specialist Martin Kaiser remains unimpressed though, pointing out that the United States still has no enforceable climate law and that “fundamentally” the situation in Copenhagen had not changed, even though the Petersburg Climate Dialogue had seen countries individually coming up with their own ways to reduce emissions and help poorer countries confront the effects of climate change.

"But that won't be enough to make sure greenhouse gas emissions peak by 2015 and go down after that," Kaiser told the Associated Press in reference to a recommendation made by scientists on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

There is hope for more progress though, UN delegates are due to meet and discuss climate change in Cancun, Mexico in December and the progress made in Germany may be continued there.

The kinds of changes that are needed are broad and ambitious, much like the building of Rome.