Downing Street Says » Chancellor Merkel and Climate Change

Asked about the agenda for the Prime Minister and Chancellor Merkel, the PMOS said that talks would range over the usual European issues and also, partly following on from the last informal summit in Finland, he said that we’d be looking ahead to the German’s presidency of the G8 and in particular to the issue of climate change. The Germans had already indicated that it will be a large part of their agenda, clearly because of the way in which we had used our G8 Presidency to focus on climate change and how that had developed into the twin focus of climate change and energy security. He went on to say that the way in which the EU is preparing a White Paper on the subject, showed there was a momentum which we are anxious to keep going forward and the Stern Report is a very useful addition to that momentum. We knew that the Germans were going to make climate change a centre part of their G8 presidency and we wanted to help them do so. There would also be a press conference in the early evening between the Prime Minister and Chancellor Merkel.

Asked about the chances of expansion of the Carbon Trading Scheme following talks with Chancellor Merkel the PMOS said that out of the EU Summit there had been a strong consensus behind the joint letter by Prime Minister Balkenende and the Prime Minister, and one of the ideas in the letter had been that aviation should become part of the trading scheme. Again we needed to take this forward in Europe but that there did seem to be a consensus in that. He added that a serious question had to be asked if it was more likely that we are going to develop the new technologies that are needed to counter the affects of climate change, to make us more energy efficient, to make our aviation more energy efficient, if we are living in an expanding economy or contracting economy.

Professor Stern has said that there was no contradiction between economic growth and being environmentally aware. This was at the core of the Government’s approach; you had to keep economies developing at the same time as developing environmental concerns. He added that it would not be right to restrict developing countries economies to address the environmental concerns of developed countries. What was correct was to give developing economies the prosperity that allowed them to invest in environmentally sustainable ways. This was where, at G8, the idea of transferring sustainable technology to India and China, as those economies would develop come what may.

Asked if the Prime Minister still believed that UK airports should be expanded if demand was there, the PMOS said that what the Prime Minister believed was what we have to align is economic growth and environmental measures, to counter the effect of climate change. Part of economic growth is developing the means to invest in research and development, the means to develop new technologies that we need.

Asked to comment on the leak from the UN suggesting that Professor Stern’s figures on the costs of climate change where hugely underestimated the PMOS said that the respected Stern Report was widely read as a serious piece of work and people should absorb that analysis and respond in detail and not make not general comments.

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» Thursday, November 2, 2006

Chancellor Merkel and Climate Change

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