Dutch presence during COP 14

During the period 1 till 12 December Poznań hosted the COP 14 – United Nations Conference on Climate Change. This conference was the follow-up of the Kyoto and Bali conferences and the run-up to the COP-15 conference to be held in Copenhagen next year. Representatives of countries from all over the world succeeded in attaining the objective of making their standpoints much more uniform on the new climate change agreement. Among other things, the Parties found common ground on the launch of the Adaptation Fund and the Poznań Technology Transfer Strategy, and completed the review of the Kyoto Protocol. COP 14 was the biggest political summit ever organized in Poland, and in this part of Europe. The Poznań-based summit attracted nearly 12 thousand participants, and more than a thousand accredited journalists. Although the number of conference guests exceeded earlier expectations, the meeting itself as well as all accompanying events, proceeded without interruption, confirming the efficiency and flexibility of the preparations. Perfect organization guaranteed all participants excellent working conditions. Poznań became a place where both developing and developed countries managed to reach concrete results of negotiations. All elements of the complex mosaic – namely the global cooperation for climate – have finally been arranged.

During this conference a reception has been organised by the Netherlands Embassy, together with the Dutch delegation, headed by Mrs Jacqueline Cramer, the Dutch Minister of Environment. Both Minister Cramer and Mr Marnix Krop, our ambassador, welcomed Dutch and Polish guests, business representatives and local (Dutch) residents. Representatives of our Netherlands-Polish Business Club Wielkopolska were able to meet Dutch members of Parliament and representatives of Dutch NGO’s.
During the conference an exhibition has been organized, where new technologies have been demonstrated on energy saving and the use of renewable energy. It was exciting to observe a high contribution of Dutch companies under the exhibition’s participants.
It is obvious that the Netherlands Polish Business Club will pay high attention in the foreseeable future to climate change and its impact on our daily business.