WARSAW: Financial chiefs from about 40 countries have vowed to push for fiscal and financial policies to curb global warming despite rising concern about the financial crisis, calling the impacts of climate change "serious long-term economic threats".
"Finance ministers emphasised that the current global economic turmoil should not divert our attention from climate change mitigation policies which are a part of long-term sustainable development," finance ministers and officials said in a summary yesterday.
The summary was issued after a two-day meeting in Warsaw, part of the two-week UN climate change talks which had started on Friday in Poznan, western Poland.
The financial chiefs called for "strong and active involvement of finance ministers" in the global drive to craft "coherent, cost effective and comprehensive solutions that will constitute the base for international agreement" on a new climate treaty to succeed the carbon-capping Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, the summary said.
They agreed countries should "remain committed to maintain strong economic growth and fundamentals," which they believe is "absolutely critical for financing the climate change challenges," it said.
In formulating future budgets, Japan sees it as "extremely important to have the perspective of leading the world toward the realisation of a low carbon society while sustaining economic growth," Japan's Parliamentary Secretary for Finance Norio Mitsuya said.
Such thinking is also important for Japan to foster domestic environmental and energy-related technology that creates economic demand and jobs, Mitsuya was quoted as saying.
