With the world reeling from the economic fallout of the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, senior officials from 40 countries met on Monday in Berlin for heart-to-heart talks on how to stay focused on fighting climate change.

The event was the 12th Petersberg Climate Change conference and was addressed by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Organisers have billed the two-day gathering as an opportunity to rebuild trust between rich and poor nations ahead of this year’s UN climate summit (COP27) in Egypt. Technical talks last month achieved little progress on key issues such as climate aid for developing countries.

Developing countries are still waiting for rich nations to provide $100 billion (€98.5 billion) in climate aid each year, a target they were meant to reach by 2020.

Big polluters, however, have also long resisted the idea that they should pay for the destruction their greenhouse gas emissions are causing around the world.

The closed-door talks in Berlin kick off with experts delivering a presentation on the issue of “loss and damage” to ministers, who will then break into small groups to discuss and listen to each other in the hope of building trust ahead of November’s COP27 summit in Sharm el-Sheikh.

China is taking part in the Berlin meeting. But Russia was not invited.

Where will Europe get its gas from, or are there other options?

The question of energy sources endangered by Russia’s war in Ukraine looms over the talks.

(Source: Euronews, July 18-2022)