5 February 2009: After a meeting held on 5 February 2009, in Berlin, Germany, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the Heads of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank issued a joint statement on the global economic situation, in which they stress the need for the worldwide fight against climate change to remain “a top priority.”

In the statement issued at the end of the meeting, the five organizations commit to strengthen their cooperation in support of “a stronger, cleaner and fairer economy,” and outline five fields of action. On climate change, they underscore that the Copenhagen conference of December 2009 must “lay the groundwork for the global efforts needed to curb climate change,” and call for a shared commitment to ambitious global climate targets on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities. They also underline the need to build a network among the various international organizations that deal with climate protection and governments. [The Statement]