The Berlin meeting was the third in a series of meetings under the framework of the Gleneagles Dialogue, launched in 2005 by the UK G8 Presidency. Energy and environment ministers from the G8 and developing nations such as China, India and Brazil took part in the latest meeting. Commission and Portuguese EU Presidency representatives were invited as observers.
According to the German Environment Ministry, the purpose of the meeting - which produced no formal commitments - was to discuss "strategies for improved technology cooperation between industrialised and developing countries" in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference on 3-14 December in Bali, Indonesia.
German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel hopes that the Bali meeting will produce "joint, long-term goals, ambitious reduction commitments for all industrialised countries and appropriate contributions from newly-industrialising countries in particular", he said.
A well-functioning global carbon market supported by "international framework conditions for investments in energy efficiency, renewable energies and (carbon capture and storage) technologies would support such commitments", he added.
But Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Norwegian Prime Minister and UN special envoy on climate change who attended the meeting, observed a "deep-rooted lack of trust" between developing and industrialised nations. "Many developing countries believe that the industrialised world has defaulted on the promise of financial and technology assistance", she said.
Developing nations - and China in particular - have also rejected calls to commit to specific CO2 emissions reductions, arguing that industrialised nations have an historic responsibility to shoulder the largest burden for fighting climate change.
