The first meeting of the PCD was initiated after the nearly completely failed negotiations at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), by German Chancellor Angela Merkel to improve communication with leaders and between the environmental ministers.
Every year, Merkel and her successor Olaf Scholz have given a speech and taken part in the discussions.
[1] Since 2022, the conference has been hosted by Minister for Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock.
[3] Speeches were given by the Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety in Germany, Svenja Schulze and by Alok Sharma (president of COP26) and António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Merkel talked about an environment-friendly global "recovery program" from the COVID-19 pandemic economic crisis on a more sustainable and inclusive path — "taxpayers' money is needed to rescue businesses, it must be creating green jobs and sustainable and inclusive growth" and "Fossil fuel subsidies must end, and carbon must have a price and polluters must pay for their pollution", Guterres said in his speech.