Polish Parliamentary Committee on 21 October and Warsaw conference on 5 November

The Polish Parliament is holding a committee hearing next Tuesday on how Poland can contribute to effective climate policy. The event which is expected to feature over 100 participants, will be in the style of a conference, with various guest speakers scheduled, including Polish MEP Boguslaw Sonik.

Mr Sonik will be discussing how the climate and energy package is viewed in the European Parliament, although there will also be other speakers discussing the Kyoto Protocol and next month’s Poznan conference which precedes the Copenhagen summit in 2009.

A further conference will be held on 5 November entitled ‘Consequences of the implementation of the EU climate and energy package for Poland’. GLOBE Europe President, MP Steen Gade, will be attending and speaking at the conference, which will also see, amongst others, representatives for the ministries of economy and environment in Poland, discussing the opportunities arising out of the package.

Climate and Transport Conference in Sweden on 22nd October

GLOBE Sweden is organising an event on how the transport sector will need to adapt to fit into Sweden’s Climate Strategy framework. Karin Svensson Smith, a GLOBE Europe member and President of GLOBE Sweden, will introduce the conference after which the floor will be given to various speakers.

Topics to be covered in the conference are centred around how the transport sector is to adapt to climate change, including the potential of biogas in the EU, the use of biofuels and the role of the bus and railway sector in replacing existing and more polluting modes of transport in Europe. The conference will be held at the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm on the 22 October.

‘Road to Copenhagen, Last Stop for Climate Action before Poznan’

In coordination with the Club of Madrid and Respect Table, GLOBE Europe is co-organising a conference in Brussels called ‘Road to Copenhagen, Last Stop for Climate Action before Poznan’. The event will be chaired by Margaret Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission, Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Vice-President of the Club of Madrid and Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and UN Special Envoy on Climate Change.

Road to Copenhagen aims to bring together representatives from three key areas (businesses, legislators and civil society) to give them a platform to express their opinions and interests regarding a future climate deal. It will seek to provide a forum for an open and democratic interactive debate on climate change, and thanks to the distinguished chairs has the potential to access and influence key players such as UN negotiators in the lead up to Copenhagen. It will allow citizens and business a voice in the UN negotiations, with the conference setting the objective of finalising a Communiqué and an Issue Paper, which can be edited and commented on by wikis, an interactive website technology.

The event has also set itself the objective of elaborating on  a concrete set of recommendations on policy input, designed to complement the Communiqué and Issue Paper. This will permit the 120 participants, who come from business, legislators and civil society, to have their messages directly delivered to policy makers in Poznan, through the chairs and different networks involved.

Further participants at the conference, which takes place on 6 November include GLOBE EU President MEP Anders Wijkman, who will take part in a panel discussion on the long term goals that Poznan must deliver. In addition GLOBE Europe President MP Steen Gade will do a presentation on Adaptation, Poverty and Sustainable Development.