Climate change and international governance are the focus of the environment ministers' meeting

Monitoring the results of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference and international environmental governance are “the two main fields” of focus for the working sessions of the informal environment ministers' meeting, held on Saturday 16 January in Seville.

This is what the Spanish Secretary of State for Climate Change, Teresa Ribera, informed us, adding that this meeting will also be attended by the environment ministers of EU candidate countries and experts from civil society. The meeting will follow that of the EU Energy Minister, held the day before, also in Seville.

The working sessions of this informal environment ministers' meeting will be chaired by the Spanish Minister for the Environment, Elena Espinosa.

According to the Secretary of State, Teresa Ribera, “we would like the European Commission to make a preliminary assessment” of the points agreed upon in the recent Copenhagen Summit on climate change. “We must reconstruct a process” in this respect, added the Spanish Secretary of State.

The Spanish Presidency of the EU will be charged with leading the process arising from the 15th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The most efficient way of tackling the twelve points agreed upon at Copenhagen will be analysed in view of the coming Climate Summit in Mexico in November.

The working sessions in Seville will feature speeches by the CEO of Repsol, Antonio Brufau, in his capacity as Chair of the Spanish Energy Club; the General Secretary of the European Environmental Bureau, John Hontelez, and the Secretary for Sustainable Development of the European Trade Union Confederation, Joël Decaillon.