The Ministry of the Environment, represented by the Director of the Climate Change Office, Teresa Ribera, participated in the joint meeting of the Environmental Policy Committee and the Development Assistance Committee of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The objective of the meeting was to advance the adoption of initiatives that facilitate the integration of environmental, economic and social policies, to reduce poverty at the global level by implementing policies that take into account the priorities and capacities of countries with different levels of development and that contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

The Declaration was endorsed by the Ministries of Environment and Development for Foreign Cooperation. The governments of the OECD member countries, through this Declaration, confirm and recognize the impacts that climate change is causing on the planet, and the negative impact of these on achieving the development goals. Declare that they will work towards a better integration of adaptation to climate change into development assistance planning, both at national and international levels, and invite the OECD to develop, in order to help achieve this objective, a series of actions to promote the exchange of experiences, good practices, and tools, review current knowledge in this regard, develop new analysis work, and develop methodologies for evaluating progress in this field.

In this area, Spain is a pioneer in having promoted the Ibero-American Plan for Adaptation to Climate Change, which has already identified systematic observation, water resources and actions in coastal areas as priority fields of work for all countries in the region. The Ministry of the Environment has developed a line of climate change in the Araucaria 21 Program of the Spanish Agency for International Cooperation, which will finance climate change adaptation projects in Ibero-American countries.