2005: the year the tide turned

This year has been one of unprecedented action on climate change with the historic coming into force of the Kyoto Protocol and the UK making the greatest environmental threat facing the world both a G8 and EU presidency priority. And 10,000 people will meet in Montreal in December for perhaps the largest ever UN climate change conference.

The Group of Eight (G8) Gleneagles summit in July concluded with an ambitious communiqu�This covered agreement from all members, including the US, on the role of human activity in global warming and the need for urgent action; and consensus on a package of actions to combat climate change through a diverse range of avenues - energy efficiency, cleaner power generation, research and development, financing cleaner energy, managing the impacts of climate change, and illegal logging. The G8 have also engaged with the World Bank and other development banks to improve the harnessing of funding for clean technology. Members also agreed a new dialogue between the G8 and other interested countries with significant energy needs on climate change, clean energy and sustainable development.

By choosing climate change as a G8 priority, the UK government has raised the profile of the issue and facilitated debate. And we want to continue to carry this momentum through our EU presidency into the negotiations at Montreal and beyond.

The EU has in 2005 taken a listening role; global consensus can only truly be built if we all have a good understanding of what the concerns of all countries are. We would therefore like to see an inclusive, open discussion at Montreal with everyone involved. To help prepare for this we have put climate change on various agendas, including the EU summits with India, China and Russia. These summits have pushed forward new partnerships. For example, the UK will be investing �3.5 million (EUR 5.15m) in the development of a near zero emissions coal demonstration plant in China using carbon capture and storage, as part of the EU-China climate change declaration agreed in September.

These opportunities present valuable chances for the EU to show that it wants to listen, learn and share best practice. It shows that we're continuing to build our own understanding of what action has to be taken to prevent dangerous climate change - we've not taken our foot off the pedal in continuing to develop our own EU position - but that we are anxious to discover what others think.

Montreal will be a turning point; a chance to reflect on our progress in understanding the scale of the climate change problem, to celebrate our achievements, and also to consider what action still needs to be taken in the short and medium term. The EU has prepared our own strategy, following the October Environment Council conclusions. Our key objective is that discussions will be launched on the future, as is mandated in Article 3.9 of the Kyoto Protocol.

But, of course, now that the Kyoto Protocol has come into force there are implementation issues to deal with too. For instance, we want to ensure that the clean development mechanism receives the support it requires to run more effectively. And parties will be invited to adopt the Marrakech Accords, the rule-book for the Protocol. There are also important issues around compliance to address.

For the EU to call credibly for further action to tackle climate change, we need to ensure we meet our existing commitments. The latest emission projections from member states suggest that existing and planned measures and emission credits gained through the Protocol's project-based mechanisms will deliver a total emissions cut of 8.6% by 2010. We will continue to review and monitor progress towards our goal.

We hope that, through our efforts and those of our EU and international partners, 2005 will be the year that creates the momentum needed to move to the next essential stage of the international framework for tackling climate change.

• Margaret Beckett is UK secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs.

Author, who is UK secretary of state for environment, food and rural affairs, takes a look at the achievements in the field of climate change in the year 2005. The United Kingdom made the fight against cliamte change a priority during its 2005 Presidency of the Group of Eight (G8) and its Presidency of the EU in the second half of the year. Article is part of a European Voice Special Report: 'Climate Change (COP11 and MOP1 Conference)'.

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