Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation at AWEPA's seminar in the Swedish Parliament: Poor and women will be hardest hit by Climate Change

Global climate change is most likely going to have the most serious impact on Africa, and those hardest hit are poor people, and among them especially poor women and girls, H.E. Gunilla Carlsson, the Swedish Minister for International Development, told some hundred African and European Parliamentarians Wednesday 19 August, when addressing the AWEPA EU Presidency Seminar on Climate Change and Development in the Swedish Parliament.

The minister went on:

- This not only poses a crucial challenge for Africa's own leaders; it also represents a responsibility for the world's richest countries. Sweden will, as president of the EU, endorse the importance of getting adaption to the climate change on the agenda for the Copenhagen meeting in December. Sweden itself has made a special commitment to climate change for the current fiscal year. The package amounts to almost 400 million Euros over four years.

Mrs. Carlsson, who served as Chair of the Commission on Climate Change and Development (CCCD), stressed that there is a clear link between adaptation and risk reduction. Adaption measures should not be separated from development policies in order to secure sustainable development. Climate change impacts will affect development efforts and the cost will be higher the longer we wait with serious mitigation efforts. The Minister also stressed that there is a need of strong parliaments and strong parliamentarians to make sure that governments work in the interest of their people, and she referred to AWEPA (The Association of European Parliamentarians) as "a tool in achieving this balance of power".

The AWEPA seminar went on with panels on "The Road to Copenhagen from a North South Perspective"; "Climate Change: the link between Adaptation and Development"; and "Institutional Architecture". Thursday 20 August will be spent at World Water Week, where a AWEPA luncheon meeting on the theme "Presenting the African-European Dialogue on Climate Change" will take place.

Read the full text of the speech under "Relaterat material": Gunilla Carlsson: Starka parlament viktiga ..