We have finally arrived in Copenhagen – final stop after a long series of preparatory meetings. With the Kyoto Protocol expiring in 2012, delegates are tasked with drawing the lines of a new international agreement on climate. With these negotiations, our nations are engaging in one of the most complex and determinant exercises in collective action they have had to manage in the history of international relations.

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Indifference is a dangerous posture when confronted with the growing importance of those who dub themselves "climate sceptics". The latter really and truly exist; they appear powerful, organised, and indulge in subversive techniques with means that certain, rather pugnacious, environmental NGOs would use readily. A number of people have expressed legitimate concerns about their influence on international opinion, which has just recently been sensitized and mobilized concerning global warming.

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With the Copenhagen summit only a few weeks away, it seems everyone is either predicting a stalemate in international negotiations or listing all the reasons it is useless to hope for an agreement in principle on a global roadmap towards an economy based on new energy paradigms.

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The end of 2009 is approaching fast. This year has been filled with expectations and hopes toward this month of December during which the world leaders are gathering to discuss the future of our planet and our future. It is in times when the whole world centres its attention on common challenges that our nationalities, cultures, differences… fade away to be replaced by a feeling of unity. This is one of those times.

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I believe that a coherent approach to poverty reduction and development needs to include an acknowledgment that refugees represent approximately 16 million of the people who live outside their country of origin. Nearly three quarters of these indivdiuals can be found in countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East experiencing a number of important development challenges and constraints. We would be doing those countries a serious disservice, and missing an important opportunity, if our approach to poverty reduction and development ignored the presence and impact of refugees.

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As I was jogging today, the image of Jacques Diouf fasting at the opening of the Rome Food Summit came to mind. I could not help but think about the thousands who die of hunger every day. The fresh air of the early morning acutely brought to my mind the huge number of global challenges facing us.

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Earlier this year I visited Nepal and Malawi, two of the poorest countries in the world. Both are already feeling the effects of climate change, with erratic weather patterns causing flooding and drought, making it harder to grow crops and access clean, safe water. The effects of climate change risk undoing the work that we have been doing for many years to try to improve the lives of the poorest people. Copenhagen is not a window of opportunity, it is a window of necessity to act on climate change. We must not waste it.

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We bring the EDDs to you. Come and find our interviews, pictures and videos taken in Stockholm during the European Development Days.

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Margot Wallström, Vice President of the European Commission in charge of Institutional Relations and Communication

With one eye on the UN Climate summit in Copenhagen in December, the European Development Days 2009 are a chance for us to demonstrate commitment to the challenges ahead: we have the common responsibility to prepare the global response to the economic crisis and climate change, as well as to lay the foundations for democracy and development. That's why I believe that we also have to use this forum to draw attention to a dimension of climate change which is often overlooked in the discussions on how to deal fairly with the effects of climate change: the fact that climate change increases social inequalities.

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This year, the 4th edition of the European Development Days (EDD) will be held in Stockholm from the 22nd to the 24th of October. Co-organized by the European Commission and the Swedish Presidency of the European Union, this forum brings together development actors from around the world: 4 000 people are expected, as well as 1 500 organizations active in development, and delegates from 125 countries. The European Development Days provide unprecedented opportunities for sharing ideas and launching innovative partnerships through frank and sometimes controversial debates on pressing issues, such as governance, poverty and environmental sustainability. In this framework the authors of the blog “Ideas for Development” invite you to discuss and debate around the themes of this year:

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