Maltese Foreign Minister Michael Frendo participated in a historic joint virtual press conference, together with the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom and the Maldives, through Second Life, in a bid to draw the world’s attention to the devastating impacts of climate change on the world’s Small Island States and to highlight the effects of the global warming on individual people around the world.

A press statement reported that the three Ministers, together expressed their joint commitment to tackling climate change as the international community heads towards the December crucial Climate Change Summit to be held in Bali, which will begin a process to find a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol.

The virtual press conference took place at the end of a vital meeting of the world’s Small Island States that took place in the Maldives between 13 and 14 November. The meeting was meant to raise international awareness about the plight of small island states ahead of the Bali Summit  and in particular to move beyond existing discussions on emission levels, temperature rises, sea-level increases and other concerns and to present the real and immediate human impact of these trends on communities around the world.

The press conference took place outside the Maldives Virtual Embassy on Diplomacy Island in Second Life.  Video speeches of the three Ministers were transmitted followed by a question and answer session with Maldives virtual diplomats and representatives of the Diplo Foundation which developed Diplomacy Island.  This was the first press conference of its kind and aimed to use modern communications channels to reach a wider international audience.

The Maltese Foreign Minister Michael Frendo recalled that “it is now 20 years since Malta first introduced the Resolution in the General Assembly of the United Nations relating to Climate Change as a Common Concern of Mankind”.  In this regard Malta plays special attention to small island states and climate change and “is committed to the negotiating skills of small island states in the international scene because we have the experience of a small island state that has had to make a contribution on the international scene notwithstanding issues of human resources, issues of capacity, issues which are attached to the very fact of vulnerability which island states have of their very nature”.

In this regard Dr. Frendo announced that Malta “would be supporting financially, with €25,000 every year for three years, the initiative of Diplo Foundation to train diplomats from small island states in negotiations related to climate change issues.

He also announced that on the 7-8 February 2008 Malta will host the first International Conference on Climate Change Diplomacy.