Today's Date:

London, October 21, 2004

Serge Lepeltier, Minister for Ecology and Sustainable Development, met his opposite number, Margaret Beckett, in London on 20 October 2004 to discuss major ecological and sustainable development issues.

G8/EU EMISSIONS TRADING SYSTEM/RUSSIAN KYOTO PROTOCOL RATIFICATION /COP 10

Margaret Beckett and Serge Lepeltier reiterated that climate change is a crucial problem which the international community must urgently address. It will be at the heart of the discussions of the G8 which the United Kingdom is chairing and of the concerns of the European Union which is bringing in its emissions trading system on 1 January 2005. Given the announcement of Russia's forthcoming ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the next session of the Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP 10) should take place in a positive, dynamic atmosphere allowing consideration of future challenges, particularly post 2012, when the first commitment period ends. In this respect, France and the United Kingdom are convinced of the need for the European Union to continue playing a leading role in implementing the Kyoto Protocol. The ministers welcomed the positive signal sent out by Russia's announcement that the Duma was shortly to consider the Bill on ratifying this protocol.

REEEP

The ministers stressed the importance of working together at both bilateral and international level to promote energy efficiency, renewable energies and better access to energy including through the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency partnership (REEEP). This will contribute to the work of the British G8 presidency, which is making sustainable development in Africa a priority.

EUROPEAN SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY

The ministers stressed that the European sustainable development strategy will encourage the birth of a European-scale societal project so that we can define a competitive and sustainable model addressing our environmental and social concerns. This strategy will thus enable the European Union to honour its international commitments by influencing, in particular, its production and consumption methods.

BIODIVERSITY: SCIENCE AND GOVERNANCE/PARIS CONFERENCE/2005

The two ministers agreed that biodiversity was an important priority and that the current rate of biodiversity loss was incompatible with sustainable development. The ministers stressed the links between biodiversity and poverty, particularly in the developing countries. They expect cooperation between the two countries to lead to the public and decision-makers getting a better grasp of the problem of the loss of biodiversity, particularly through the international conference on biodiversity to be held in Paris in January 2005.

FRENCH SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY/PEER REVIEW/CSD

The British Minister confirmed that her country would be participating, with Belgium and Ghana, in the peer review of France's national sustainable development strategy, whose results will be presented at the next meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development to be held in New York in April 2005

UNEP/UNEO

As regards international governance of the environment, the two ministers agreed on the importance of strengthening the United Nations Environment Programme, particularly through appropriate, guaranteed and equitable funding, which could lead to its transformation into a specialized United Nations agency. The two ministers took note with interest of the work carried out in the group set up by France, and expressed the wish to see it continue.

UK/FRANCE/ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY STAFF EXCHANGES

The United Kingdom and France agreed to establish, as soon as 2005, a programme for staff exchanges between the two ministries./.