Date of release : 21-03-2005

Policy area : General Affairs and External Relations

Lucien Lux and Jean-Louis Schiltz, the Ministers for the Environment and for Development Cooperation, together with European Commissioners Stavros Dimas and Louis Michel, represented the EU at the ministerial meeting of the G-8 in Derbyshire (Great Britain) on 17 and 18 March 2005. It was a joint meeting of Ministers for the Environment and for Cooperation, held in preparation for the G-8 summit of Gleneagles in July 2005. The principal subjects on the agenda were the impact of climate change on Africa and illegal deforestation.

During a press conference on Monday 21 March, the two Ministers summed up the meeting, which emphasised the important links between the environment and development.

African countries are particularly vulnerable to climate change, the impact of which poses serious risks to their development. The increasing frequency with which extreme climatic events occur (storms, floods, droughts and their severity and duration), as well as increasing desertification (soil erosion, degradation and loss of fertile land) are the results of global climate change. For example, the floods in Mozambique in 2000 resulted in a dramatic drop in economic growth (8% in 1999 versus 2% in 2000). As a result there is a need for urgent action to aid the countries that are most at risk, which are frequently also the countries that are most in need, to adapt to climate change.

According to Jean-Louis Schiltz, "the action to be taken consists of improved understanding of the phenomenon (improving the quality of prediction and early warning systems), better planning (spatial planning, exposed areas) and better monitoring of processes such as desertification."

Jean-Louis Schiltz continued: "This is also a matter of the imperative integration of the adaptation to climate change, the fight against desertification, and the sustainable management of natural resources into national strategies, policies and development programmes." To this end, Jean-Louis Schiltz requested increased support to these countries to enable them to develop and improve their capabilities in the areas of science and technology, as well as their access to satellite data for monitoring.

The two Ministers also emphasised the agreement on the declaration on illegal logging. Lucien Lux emphasised "the impact of illegal logging in economic terms and in terms of degradation the environment. Illegal logging results in a loss of biodiversity and worsens droughts, which in turn jeopardises food safety and the fight against poverty."

Lucien Lux also recalled that the G-8 recognises that: "the fact that the African countries, which are particularly at risk, are forced to adapt to climate change, and that the developed countries are committed to helping them, must nevertheless not distract our attention from the fight against climate change, which should principally be engaged in through an significant reduction in emissions of greenhouse gases."

In the framework of the G-8 meeting, Lucien Lux, together with Commissioner Stavros Dimas, had an exchange on the post-Kyoto period with Canada, Japan, Russia and the United States.