The next Climate Change Conference in Doha must give climate change mitigation an urgently needed new impetus. All states must get involved if a new climate agreement is to be negotiated by 2015 and realized as of 2020, said Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday in her opening speech at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue in Berlin.

"A new understanding of growth is needed, because economic activities must be undertaken for the good of the people," Merkel told delegates from more than 30 countries.

She underscored the fact that although all countries share the responsibility for protecting our climate, their responsibilities vary. The consequences of simply carrying on as we have to date would be terrible, and the 2 degrees Celsius limit would be unachievable.

That is why something will have to change. It will not be easy and we will have to overcome many fears, but it is still the best option for everybody in the world, declared Merkel.

"A new growth concept across all policy fields, can be taken as the basis for a sustainable path to growth. We can no longer see growth purely in quantitative terms."

Germany, with its shift towards more sustainable energy sources, is helping put its energy supply on a new footing. It is not easy, because all three guiding principles - energy must be affordable, safe and environmentally acceptable - must be taken equally into account.

"If this project is successful, it can point the way towards a more sustainable energy supply for other countries too," said the Chancellor.

All have to redouble climate efforts

At the close of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Federal Environment Minister Peter Altmaier once again urged all participants to redouble their efforts to protect the global climate. A new agreement is to be hammered out by 2015.

"A great many states are already making huge efforts to curb their emissions and mitigate climate change. That alone will not, however, be enough to keep the rise in global temperatures under the 2 degrees Celsius mark. We will all have to redouble our efforts," Peter Altmaier said at the close of the Dialogue on Tuesday.

The minister specially welcomed the fact that many of the states attending the Petersberg Dialogue already intend to take additional steps to curb increases in emissions ahead of the 2020 deadline.

He praised the efforts of the major emerging economies, Brazil, China, India, Mexicoand South Africa. In other industrialized countries too though and in many of the least developed states much is already being done to keep emissions down, he said.

The Dialogue dates back to a personal initiative of the Chancellor at the UN Climate Change Conference in 2009 in Copenhagen. Since then it has served to prepare the ground for UN Climate Change Conferences and to build bridges in international climate efforts.