G20: Balkenende calls for climate action

Thursday 02 April 2009

Prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende used his first face to face meeting with new US president Barack Obama to urge greater American involvement in efforts to tackle climate change, reports news agency ANP.

Balkenende and Obama met on the fringes of the G20 summit in London where world leaders have gathered to discuss the financial crisis.

'I mentioned the fact that in the past the US did not join Kyoto. And that I hoped the US would expressly take part in the reaching of agreements on climate change in Copenhagen,' ANP quoted Balkenende as saying. A new world summit on climate change is scheduled to take place in the Danish capital later this year.

Balkenende said he also underlined the importance of sustainability and innovation in his exchange with Obama. There is a link between the financial crisis and combating protectionism, free trade and developing the world's poorest countries, Balkenende is reported as saying.

Finance minister Wouter Bos is to focus on calling for the role of the International Monetary Fund to be strengthened, ANP said.

© DutchNews.nl

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