Petersberg Climate Dialogue IV: Opening Statement by Minister Peter Altmaier

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Chancellor Merkel,
Minister Korolec,
Excellencies,
Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to the fourth Petersberg Climate Dialogue. The Petersberg Climate Dialogue has become a well-established forum for frank and open debate. It aims at creating political momentum for the UN climate process and for our national efforts to tackle climate change. I hope that this year again, we will make progress in this regard.

We are very honoured that Chancellor Merkel will open the fourth Petersberg Climate Dialogue. The dialogue is the result of her personal initiative, and the fact that she has attended all four meetings shows that climate action is a cross-cutting issue that remains at the top of the agenda.

It is also a great pleasure to co-chair this year's dialogue with Marcin Korolec, the Polish Environment Minister and future COP president. I look forward to our cooperation.

I would also like to welcome His Excellency Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah, chair of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority and COP president, who led us through a successful COP in Doha.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
2015 marks the next important milestone in international climate policy. It is the year we want to adopt a new climate agreement that covers all countries for the first time. One thing is crucial if we are to have a chance of success in 2015: we must all have done our homework by then.

Firstly, this means that we have to know what we are each willing to contribute under the new agreement. It is also a question of whether this will be an adequate contribution to preventing dangerous climate change. Germany and the EU intend to continue in their pioneering role. In Germany we have decided to cut our emissions by 40 percent by 2020 and by 55 percent by 2030 - and to do so domestically. In the EU we are currently discussing our reduction target for 2030. I will advocate an ambitious target on the scale that is needed to cut our emissions by 80 to 95 percent by 2050. The instruments we want to use to achieve these targets are also important. In the EU we have positive experience with a set of three headline targets: an emission reduction target, an efficiency target and a target for increasing the share of renewable energies in energy consumption. We should retain these.

Secondly, doing our homework means that in the crucial discussions on the 2015 agreement we must not lose sight of the targets already adopted for 2020. On the contrary - to have any chance of limiting global warming to 2 degrees Celsius we have to be even more ambitious. This applies both to the EU and other countries. Political will is essential. The key instrument for implementing the EU's climate target is still emissions trading. Measures are urgently required that enable emissions trading to once again send real price signals that set incentives for climate-friendly investments. I remain confident that we will achieve this in the short term.

I am also confident that other countries will send similar signals, enabling us to adopt a fair, effective and ambitious new agreement in 2015. We have to take the first step on this road in Poland in 2013. At this dialogue we want to discuss how the climate change conference in Warsaw can contribute to achieving our long-term goals.

To conclude I would like to say a few words about the Petersberg Climate Dialogue. This opening session is open to the press, the rest of our discussions are not. We want to hold a real, open dialogue. Part of the sessions will be moderated by us cochairs,
others by external moderators who will help up draw concrete conclusions from our talks. At the end of the dialogue, my co-chair Marcin Korolec and I will summarise the discussions. This co-chairs' summary will be our personal conclusions rather than a
negotiated document.

I look forward to interesting and constructive talks. And now, before Chancellor Merkel gives her speech, I would like to hand over to my co-chair, the Polish Environment Minister Marcin Korolec.