Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former US vice-president Al Gore, UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon, German chancellor Angela Merkel and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as well as 150 world environment ministers and NGO representatives are among the nine thousand participants of the UN Climate Change Conference which has started in the western Polish city of Poznań. Their meeting, running from December 1 until December 12, is aimed at preparing a new global agreement for slashing greenhouse gases and helping poor countries exposed to climate change.
 
The UN Climate Change Conference is the biggest and the most important forum for political discussion on climate changes. The stands resulting from the debate are to constitute the basis for an international climate change deal to be clinched in Copenhagen in 2009. Among the most important issues delegates from 190 countries are to discuss is how to counteract global climate change. According to Poland's environment minister Maciej Nowicki a common action plan for all countries in the world is to be established. Progress in the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, including capacity-building for developing countries, reducing emissions from deforestation, technology transfer and adaptation as well as international carbon dioxide emissions trading are also to be discussed. One of the most controversial issues for Poland - second most coal-dependent country in the world -  is the goal of cutting CO2 emission by one fifth by the year 2020.  More on the conference can be found at www.cop14.gov.pl.

Click on the audio icon to listen to the entire report by Danuta Isler.