Minister Väyrynen to participate in the World Climate Conference 3

Press release 222/2009
1 September, 2009

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will participate in the World Climate Conference 3, to be organised by the World Meteorological Organization, WMO, in Geneva on 3 September.

The conference theme will focus especially on improved predictions and information of weather and extreme climate conditions, benefiting both climate-risk management and adaptation to climate change. The goal of the High-level Segment of the conference is to approve a political declaration and to establish the Global Framework for Climate Services.

The objective is that the results of the World Climate Conference would support the UN climate change negotiations, culminating in the Copenhagen Climate Conference in December 2009. The first World Climate Conference in 1979 gave impetus for the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC. The second conference in 1991 brought up the importance of an agreement on climate change and contributed to the generation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, UNFCCC.
During the conference, Minister Väyrynen will meet, for instance, Helen Clark, Administrator of the UN Development Programme, UNDP, and Staffan de Mistura, Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, WFP.

Additional information: Tiina Jortikka-Laitinen, Director, Unit for International Environmental Policy, tel. +358 9 1605 5590, and Advisor to the Minister Päivi Nevala, tel. +358 9 1605 6171