Stockholm - Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt Thursday called nations to "put national interests aside" in order to secure a global deal on climate change in Copenhagen in December. Reinfeldt was one of the keynote speakers at the European Development Days, a three-day event which groups government leaders, cabinet members, aid agencies and non-governmental organizations from over 120 countries. It was also open to the general public.
Themes to be discussed include how to make development aid more effective as well as the global financial crisis, democratic development and climate change.
The Swedish premier, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, said a climate deal was necessary, noting that the "most vulnerable" would be hit by the effects of rising sea levels, drought and lower harvest yields.
Other keynote speakers were Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission and Rajenda Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US vice president Al Gore.
Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, who had also been invited as a speaker, was absent because of the ongoing crisis in the power-sharing government in his nation.
Pachauri noted the difficulties in achieving the United Nations Millennium Development Goals of halving poverty by 2015, and reminded delegates that hundreds of millions lack access to energy. Some1.6 billion people lack access to electricity while over 2 billion rely on biomass for cooking.
"Development has not touched this huge section of society," he said.
"Climate change has the forces to bring about instability across the world," Pachauri warned, noting that the IPCC forecast that by 2020 some 75 to 250 million people in Africa alone "would be living in conditions of water stress."
Barroso noted also highlighted climate change in his remarks and touched on the widespread support for development aid among EU citizens, citing a recent Eurobarometer survey that suggested 90 per cent believed development aid was an important issue.
"Economic downturn cannot, must not and will not be used as an excuse to go back on our promises to increase aid to developing countries,"he said.
