The environment ministers of the eight leading industrialized countries, the G8, have wound up two days of consultation focused on ways to preserve biological diversity and combat climate change.
At the invitation of German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who chairs the G8 group this year, the environment ministers of the five major newly industrializing countries – China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa – took part for the first time in this annual ministerial meeting.
The 13 ministers agreed on a “Potsdam Initiative” on biodiversity that includes a study to calculate the economic costs from dwindling species, said Gabriel.
The clear message of this meeting is that we need to jointly scale up our efforts to reduce the massive loss of biological diversity. We agree that we cannot continue to erase the database of nature with its big potential for economic and social development”, he continued.
The “Potsdam Initiative on Biological Diversity 2010” includes concrete activities for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. The measures in the areas of science, economics, trade and financing contribute to a significant reduction of the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. A global study should examine the economic importance of biodiversity along the lines of the Stern Review on climate change.
BMU press release: Gutes Signal für G8-Gipfel in Heiligendamm
Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
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