BERLIN — Global financial turmoil will make
it harder for international partners to reach important
agreements on climate change in the coming months, German
Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Tuesday.
Speaking at a Berlin conference on
transatlantic cooperation on climate and energy, Steinmeier said
countries’ policy priorities were shifting in the wake of the
market crisis.
"The collapse of a bank is more visible and
tangible, and media pressure to act is bigger than it is in a
process which is less visible but which has more sustained and
long-term effects, such as climate change," he told the
conference.
Steinmeier said it was crucial to make
advances by the end of 2009, when a Copenhagen summit will aim
to finalize a global warming accord to succeed the Kyoto
Protocol, which runs to the end of 2012.
"There’s no alternative," Steinmeier said.
"But the already difficult conditions have become even more
difficult through the current situation."
Steinmeier expressed hope that despite the financial market
troubles, a new US administration would make international
cooperation on energy and climate a priority.
