Mr. President, dear colleagues!I am grateful for this opportunity to draw your attention to the comingUN global climate summit – COP15 – which will take place in thecapital of Denmark, Copenhagen in December this year.I have the honour to inform you that the Danish Parliament and theIPU are hosting an Inter-Parliamentarian meeting concerning climatechangeson the 16

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of December 2009.The meeting will take placein Copenhagen during the last part of the COP15 andthe aim is toinclude parliamentarians to the highest possible extent in theimportant COP15 negotiations.As you know, climate changes have been lively discussed amongscientists, politicians and various interest groups for many years.There are different opinions regarding climate change.Are thechanges caused by human activity, including the acceleratingemission of CO2? Or are the changes just natural variations in theglobal climate?However, during the last five years it has become more and moreclear that the actual changes in the climate and weather conditionsare happening so fast that it could not only be natural variations in theglobal climate.The changes are also caused by human activity,here among the accelerating emission of CO2 and othergreenhouse gases.Dear colleagues, I am sure that we all agree that we need to dosomething about this global problem before it is too late.

But, our future actions to reduce the consumption offossil basedenergyand the emission of CO2, must be well considered.First of allwe must carefully consider the impact on the developingcountries in the world. Possibilities for growth in must be ensured.It is also essentialthat we consider how to manage the climatechange challenge in the light of the current global financial crises.Development of a green economy with creation of new jobsrelated to energy savings and production of renewable greenenergy are intelligent ways to handle these challenges at thesame time.I am very much looking forward to welcome you, my dearcolleagues, at this IPU climate meeting in the Danish Parliamenton the 16

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December.As parliamentarians wemustbe active in thediscussions about global and coordinated actions to reduce theemission of green house gases.Thank you all for your attention!