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Climate Change is Key Topic for Chancellor Merkel and House Speaker Pelosi

Chancellor Angela Merkel and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed that multilateral solutions will be needed to combat climate change. er their meeting

Berlin: Chancellor Angela Merkel and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed that multilateral solutions will be needed to combat climate change.

International agreements will be centrally important in combating climate change in the future, Chancellor Angela Merkel said after meeting with US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in Berlin on May 29. “We hold the view – which I pointed out – that we need multilateral agreements in the future also in order to be able to tackle this human challenge globally,” Chancellor Merkel said after their meeting. “We believe that the industrialized nations must lead the way here.”

Addressing the global issue of climate change has been one of the main agenda points of Germany’s G8 Presidency and will figure prominently at the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, June 6-8.

Chancellor Merkel said she was pleased to see that a broad, bipartisan movement is underway in Congress that attaches great importance to the issue of climate and energy.

Speaker Pelosi, who brought with her a high-ranking, bipartisan delegation of legislators, said they were working on legislation and mentioned the leadership role that Chancellor Merkel has taken on the issue.

“I completely associate myself with the Chancellor’s comments that these solutions must be multilateral,” Pelosi said.

Both Merkel and Pelosi also stressed the key role that technology and innovation should play in fighting global warming.

Meeting with Foreign Minister Steinmeier

Berlin Meeting: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and Federal Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier talk to the press after their meeting.

Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and Federal Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier talk to the press after their meeting

House Speaker Pelosi also met with Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Berlin.

Their discussions on Monday focused on current developments in the Near and Middle East, as well as on climate change, energy efficiency and security of energy supplies. In the run-up to the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, Steinmeier reiterated that the aim of the Federal Government, and of the EU as a whole, was to agree on goals which were as concrete and binding as possible.

Commenting on the situation in the Middle East, Speaker Pelosi and Minister Steinmeier expressed concern at the latest wave of violence in the Gaza Strip and also in Lebanon.

Speaker Pelosi reported on her recent visit to Damascus (Syria). Both agreed that if efforts to achieve a comprehensive peace settlement in the Middle East were to succeed, there would have to be dialogue with all the countries in the region. In this context, a constructive contribution to easing tensions was expected in Damascus.

May 29, 2007

photos BPA, Foreign Office

Link

Joint science academies’ statement on growth and responsibility: sustainability, energy efficiency and climate protection (May 2007)

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