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Around one thousand representatives from more than 150 governments, business and industry, environmental organisations and research institutions gathered for the "Vienna Climate Change Talks 2007" (27 to 31 August) to set the stage for a major United Nations conference in December in Bali. The conference in Indonesia will seek to advance future action on climate change post-2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires.

The talks were opened by Josef Pröll, Federal Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management of Austria, along with Maria Madalena Brito Neves, Minister of Agriculture and Environment of Cape Verde and Mr. Monyane Moleleki, Minister of Natural Resources of Lesotho.

Josef Pröll said:
"Climate change is a huge challenge that can only be tackled at a global level and in an integrated manner. We do not have much time to create adequate framework conditions. Each year without mitigation measures is a year which drives the human and financial cost of adaptation steeply upwards."

Speaking about the effects of prolonged drought in his home country Lesotho, Minister Monyane Moleleki warned that climate change was already having severe effects on agriculture.

"The farmers are suffering because nothing happens when its supposed to - traditional rainy seasons are no longer predictable. The numbers of droughts have doubled since the late 1970s and when the rains come, they come in torrents," he said.

Maria Madalena Brito Neves, Minister of Agriculture and Environment of Cape Verde pointed out that whilst her country had recently made progress in enhancing economic growth by for example the boosting the tourism sector, this progress was in danger of being made null and void.

"Climate change can potentially offset all the gains made in achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Small Island Developing States are particularly affected," she said.

Both developing country Ministers stressed that a future UN climate change regime post-2012 would have to deliver on technology transfer, increased access to the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism and financial resources for adaptation.

The meeting consists of talks under the "Dialogue on long-term cooperative action to address climate change" and negotiations under the Kyoto Protocol designed to identify emission reduction ranges of industrialised countries.

On Tuesday, the UNFCCC secretariat presented a new report on investment and financial flows needed for an enhanced and far-reaching international response to climate change to delegates.

Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, said:
"This could provide the foundation for the financial architecture of a future climate change regime. All in all, the Vienna Climate Change Talks present an opportunity to measure the temperature of the climate change process: whether or not the political community is willing to advance a comprehensive agenda on a future climate change regime post-2012 in Bali."