Ministers from all over the world prepare for Climate Summit in Paris.
Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks and French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius have invited around 35 ministers from all regions of the world to participate in the sixth Petersberg Climate Dialogue from 17 to 19 May 2015. With the Dialogue Germany and France want to pave the way for a successful outcome at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris at the end of this year. Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President François Hollande will address the ministers on Tuesday morning.
The Dialogue begins on Monday morning with a discussion of the core elements of the planned agreement of Paris. Ministers will then go on to look at the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) which each country is to formulate and submit and consider mechanisms for enhancing the level of ambition. On Monday afternoon talks will focus on the role of climate finance and the form a set of rules anchored in the Paris agreement might take to ensure our efforts are comparable, binding and honest.
For the complete press release, please see Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety.
The European Green Deal has made the environment and climate change the focus of EU action. Indeed, climate change impacts are already increasing the pressure on states and societies; however, it is not yet clear how the EU can engage on climate security and environmental peacemaking. In this light, and in the run-up to the German EU Council Presidency, adelphi and its partners are organising a roundtable series on “Climate, environment, peace: Priorities for EU external action in the decade ahead”.
In January 2020, the German Federal Foreign Office launched Green Central Asia, a regional initiative on climate and security in Central Asia and Afghanistan. The aim of the initiative is to support a dialogue in the region on climate change and associated risks in order to foster regional integration between the six countries involved.
Climate change will shift key coordinates of foreign policy in the coming years and decades. Even now, climate policy is more than just environment policy; it has long since arrived at the centre of foreign policy. The German Foreign Office recently released a report on climate diplomacy recognizing the biggest challenges to security posed by climate change and highlighting fields of action for strengthening international climate diplomacy.
A high-level ministerial conference in Berlin is looking at the impact of climate change on regional security in Central Asia. The aim is to foster stronger regional cooperation, improve the exchange of information and form connections with academia and civil society.