VZCZCXRO2265
PP RUEHAG RUEHDF RUEHHM RUEHIK RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD
RUEHROV
DE RUEHRL #2206/01 3481625
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 141625Z DEC 07
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0026
INFO RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA 0288
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA 0687
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0114
RUEHME/AMEMBASSY MEXICO 0304
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 1895
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 0511
RUEHSA/AMEMBASSY PRETORIA 0248
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1546
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUCNFRG/FRG COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHBS/USEU BRUSSELS
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHINGTON DC
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BERLIN 002206 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EEB, EEB/ESC, G, OES, OES/EGC, EUR, EUR/RPE, 
EUR/WE, KGHG 
WHITE HOUSE FOR CEQ 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
CEQ FOR DAVID BANKS; EEB FOR DAS HENGEL 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; NOT FOR INTERNET 
DISTRIBUTION. 
 
E.O. 12356:  N/A 
TAGS: SENV ENRG GM
SUBJECT:  G8 CONFERENCE ON THE ENERGY SECURITY AND 
CLIMATE 
 
REF: (A) Berlin 2152 
 
ENTIRE TEXT IS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED. NOT FOR 
INTERNET DISTRIBUTION 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY.  On December 3, the German 
government hosted its last major G8 conference on the 
theme of energy and climate change, a major priority 
during both its G8 and EU presidencies.  Ministers and 
senior representatives of G8 countries, the European 
Union and Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South 
Africa met to discuss the role of foreign policy in 
guaranteeing a secure energy supply and protecting 
the global climate.  In the afternoon, the conference 
was opened to include international organizations and 
other major energy producer and consuming countries. 
The U.S. delegation was headed by Under Secretary for 
Economic, Energy and Agricultural Affairs Reuben 
Jeffery III.  The conference resulted in a Chair's 
Summary that discussed the importance and link between 
energy security and protecting the climate, the need 
to work together multilaterally and the importance of 
mitigation and adaptation to achieve these goals.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
CONFERENCE STRUCTURE 
-------------------- 
¶2.  (U) The morning session was opened by Foreign 
Minister Steinmeier and included all G8 members, the 
EU and the five outreach countries (Brazil, China, 
India, Mexico and South Africa).  Environment Minister 
Gabriel also addressed the conference.  The afternoon 
session included members of international 
organizations and other countries, e.g., Australia and 
Norway, which have major energy security and climate 
change concerns.  The U.S. delegation included Under 
Secretary Reuben Jeffery, Deputy Assistant Secretary 
 
SIPDIS 
Douglas Hengel and OES/EGC Drew Nelson. 
 
CLIMATE PROTECTION AND FOREIGN POLICY 
------------------------------------- 
¶3.  (SBU) Participants from both G8 and O5 countries 
discussed the interaction between foreign policy and 
climate protection.  German Foreign Minister 
Steinmeier opened the event with an address on the 
importance of energy security and climate to foreign 
policy and argued that energy security was by its very 
definition a national security concern.  German 
Environment Minister Gabriel complimented the EU on 
adopting more stringent climate reduction goals than 
the Kyoto Protocol requires.  He also said that 
Germany is well on its way to meeting its C02 
reduction targets and emphasized the success of the 
close coordination between EU climate and energy 
goals.  Gabriel said it is necessary for all 
countries, including the developing world, to reduce 
its emissions.  Otherwise the reductions in Germany 
and Europe will have no real effect. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) France said that all major emitters, both 
the G8 and O5 countries, must take responsibility for 
climate change.  India, in particular, argued that it 
was inherently unfair to hold developing countries to 
he same standard as developed countries in terms o 
overall CO2 emissions.  Developing country 
paticipants said they support the fact 
 
BERLIN 00002206  002 OF 003 
 
 
that climate change is a global challenge, but 
rejected the notion that the burden of fighting 
climate change should fall equally.  This idea was 
supported by several developed countries, including 
Norway, Italy and Germany. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The United States reiterated the importance 
it places on climate protection, US goals in the Major 
Economies process, and the importance of the G8 energy 
security principles agreed at the St. Petersburg 
summit. 
 
INCREASING ENERGY SECURITY THROUGH COOPERATIVE ACTION 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
¶6.  (SBU) Participants agreed that climate change is 
one of the greatest global challenges of the 21st 
century and that it needs to become a central issue of 
our foreign policies.  Representatives also agreed 
that a secure energy supply and climate protection are 
closely linked and called for integrated polices under 
the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change 
(UNFCCC) to foster both.  International organizations 
such as the IEA and IEF play a crucial role in 
this.  The IEA argued that consumer and supplier 
countries share many issues related to energy 
security, including investment and price 
stability/predictability.  The IEF argued that 
diversity of supply is key. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) The United States emphasized that good 
governance is key to managing a variety of stresses, 
including from climate change, and pointed to the 
importance of open investment regimes to enhance 
global energy security. This is true for both consumer 
and producer countries.  This was supported by France, 
who argued that increased transparency would lead to 
better investment decisions.  Norway called for non- 
discriminatory investment regimes. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Participants from developing countries, 
e.g., Indonesia, China, Brazil and India, called for 
increased technology transfer to ensure that 
developing countries can have access to the technology 
they need to meet both their energy security and 
climate change goals.  Japan raised concerns over the 
protection of intellectual property rights in 
technology transfer. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) The United States emphasized the need for 
cooperation on the development of new technology. 
Russia called for the need to increase dialogue 
between consuming, producer and transit countries. 
Both Russia and Norway discussed the need for security 
of demand as well as security of supply.  The EU 
called for the development of an energy security 
diplomacy that would strive to resolve conflicts over 
resources diplomatically. 
 
GLOBAL ENERGY SECURITY 
---------------------- 
¶10.  (SBU) Diversity of supply was seen as key to 
global energy security.  Several participants 
discussed the benefits of nuclear energy to energy 
security and combating climate change.  South Africa 
said that diversification is crucial to energy 
security and endorsed the need for nuclear energy. 
 
BERLIN 00002206  003 OF 003 
 
 
This was supported by a number of other countries 
including France and India, as well as the IEA. 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Energy efficiency was also widely discussed 
and supported as a neutral way of increasing energy 
security and combating CO2 emissions. 
 
CLIMATE CHANGE AS A CHALLENGE TO GLOBAL SECURITY 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
¶12.  (SBU) Many participants discussed the challenge 
of climate change to global security.  Steinmeier 
spoke of the potential for climate change to result in 
conflicts over dwindling resources, especially access 
to food and water.  Gabriel discussed the potential 
impact of climate change on both the economy and the 
political and security spheres.  He talked about the 
possibility of widespread immigration due to climate 
change and the destabilizing impact this could have. 
The EU described climate change as a "threat 
multiplier" that will have major impact on the global 
economy and competition for energy resources. 
 
¶13.  (SBU) The United States discussed the need to 
look at adaptation as well.  Crucial to this is early 
warning systems.  The U.S. highlighted its investment 
in early warning systems.  Japan and France also 
discussed the need for adaptation in the face of 
climate change.  Brazil described adaptation as the 
poor cousin of mitigation. 
 
BALI:  THE WAY FORWARD 
---------------------- 
¶14.  (SBU) Many participants echoed Steinmeier and 
Gabriel's comments that discussions at the Bali 
climate change conference will be essential to drawing 
up a global strategy to combat climate change. 
Steinmeier said that discussions at the Bali climate 
change conference will be difficult but a global 
strategy to combat climate change is vital to avoiding 
future conflicts.  Indonesia said Bali will strive to 
bridge the two schools of thought over the need for 
hard climate change targets and the need for 
flexibility.  India said it was important that Bali 
lay out a roadmap for a post-2012 agreement on climate 
change and that this should not be seen as a post- 
Kyoto agreement. 
 
¶11.  This cable was cleared with DAS Hengel. 
 
TIMKEN, JR