An international conference on climate change will be held in Hong Kong from May 29 to 31, an event that is expected to bring together experts and government officials from 26 countries and regions.

The conference, dubbed International Conference on Climate Change 2007 (ICCC 2007), is aimed at providing a platform to explore the scientific, technical and socio-economic issues relevant to the understanding of human induced climate change, said Ir Otto Poon, chairman of the meeting's organizing committee, at a press conference in Hong Kong Tuesday.

The meeting will also assess the potential impacts of climate change, propose mitigation and adaptation measures, and to develop strategies to implement these measures, he said.

At the end of the conference, there will be a plenary panel discussion summarizing the issues and come up with a paper "Call for Actions" for governments, businesses, civil societies, communities and individuals, he said.

The Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change will also present its work on the "Fourth Assessment Report" in a special session at the conference on May 30, he said.

"We are composing a song dedicated to the ICCC. It will be sung at the opening ceremony, and if approved at the closing session, it will be the Song of ICCC for further conferences," he said.

Poon said that he hoped ICCC 2007 will be the first of a series of ICCCs which will be held in rotation in a different country or region on a regular basis.

The ICCC is a bottom-up, non-governmental initiative organized by a consortium of engineering and environmental professional institutions, including the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers.

(Xinhua News Agency February 28, 2007)