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German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel (3rdL) stands together with participants of the G8 2007 Environment Ministers Meeting in front of the former Prussian residence Schloss Sanssouci in the eastern German city of Potsdam March 16, 2007. The picture shows front row from Rto2ndL: Head of the US Environmental Protection Agency Stephen L.Johnson, Canada's Environment Minister John Baird, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, India's Environment Minister Shri A. Raja, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Achim Steiner, Italian Environmement Minister Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio and French Environment Minister Nelly Olin. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

 

Climate change, specifically finding agreements that will lead to a successor to the Kyoto protocol, is the focus of a meeting of environmental ministers and officials from 13 countries in Potsdam near Berlin.

 

The meeting will seek to find agreements between G8 and emerging economies that would help provide successor agreements to the 1997 Kyoto treaty, German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel said. The environment ministers from the eight industrialized countries (G8) as well as officials from China, India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa will attend the two-day meeting.

 

The Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding targets for developed countries to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming, will expire in 2012.

 

"The year 2007 is a decisive one for international climate control," Gabriel said, adding that this gathering would seek to identify obstacles on the way to a post-Kyoto deal.

 

The G8 bloc and emerging economies would also discuss the best way to remove these obstacles, Gabriel said.

 

In addition to climate change, biodiversity will also be on the agenda of the meeting.

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(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2007)