Merkel, Guterres to address Petersberg climate conference
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will on Tuesday address ministers from about 30 countries who are discussing how the battle against the new coronavirus can be linked to the fight against climate change.
Their speeches will come on the last day of this year’s informal Petersberg Climate Dialogue, which is for the first time being held as a video conference due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Participants were due to discuss “which measures could pave the way for a green recovery from this economic crisis,” according to the German Environment Ministry.
No concrete results are expected since the dialogue is meant to be informal.
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The annual event was set up by Merkel in 2010 to inject new energy into climate negotiations following the failure of a UN summit in Copenhagen. Germany is hosting this year’s dialogue together with Britain, where the next UN climate summit is due to take place.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson had also been listed as a possible speaker, but current plans call for the closing remarks to be delivered by Alok Sharma, the British minister for COP 26 – the climate summit that is due to be held in Glasgow. (dpa)
