The sixth cli­ma­te sym­po­si­um in Ny Åle­sund was held from 21 to 23 May. It is an almost annu­al mee­ting sin­ce 2006 bet­ween com­pa­ny lea­ders, poli­ti­ci­ans and sci­en­tists, inclu­ding Nor­we­gi­an tra­de minis­ter Trond Gis­ke and E.ON CEO Johan­nes Teys­sen. Rajen­dra Pach­au­ri, chair­man of the Inter­go­vern­men­tal Panel on Cli­ma­te Chan­ge of the UN, had to can­cel his par­ti­ci­pa­ti­on on short warning. His speech was trans­mit­ted via video screen to the sym­po­si­um. Pach­au­ri empha­si­zed that the average glo­bal tem­pe­ra­tu­re rose by 0,74 % during the 20th cen­tu­ry and if this trend is to con­ti­nue, a 2,5°C rise until the end of the 21 cen­tu­ry would be the result. An esti­ma­ted 20-30 % of the glo­bal human popu­la­ti­on would loo­se their homes as a con­se­quence.

The sym­po­si­um does not pro­du­ce major bre­akthrough decisi­ons. Norway’s tra­de minis­ter Giskke sent a doubt­ful signal the­se days when deno­ting that he might be open for long-term coal mining in Spits­ber­gen. So far obser­vers com­mon­ly under­stand that the recent­ly ope­ned coal mine at Lunck­ef­jel­let is to be Spitsbergen’s last one.

Source: VG,(Ver­dens Gang, Nor­we­gi­an news­pa­per), Press release of the Nor­we­gi­an Minis­try of Tra­de