Photo: Nils Bøhmer/Bellona

The goal of the conference in Sarpsborg is to hammer out a set of recommendations to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009, where the negotiations that started in Bali last December will continue.

The agreement of a lifetime
“The agreement that is expected to be reached in Copenhagen might be the most important agreement of our time,” said Bellona Foundation President Frederic Hauge.

Photo: Hafslund

Club de Madrid members and former prime ministers Gro Harlem Brundtland of Norway and Göran Persson of Sweden, as well as former Chilean president Ricardo Lagos, were among other key-note speakers opening the CC8.

Currently UN’s special envoy on climate questions, Brundtland said the world faces a big challenge that will influence all sides of humanity. She said this will also mean new opportunities for business.

“I am a technology optimist,” said Brundtland.

Persson also focused on technology.

“Yesterday’s technology is a threat,” Persson stressed.

In his speech he told how Sweden replaced oil and coal with biomass with help of taxes and regulations and described the shift as a win-win situation.

Chile’s Lagos, who is the UN’s special climate envoy and president and the co-organiser of the Club de Madrid, thanked the more than 100 participants and stated there is a great need for discussion on the climate issues.