Climate change has become a shocking reality. It is high time that countries worked together to minimize the dangers of climate change. The devastating hurricane season which hit the Gulf of Mexico in late summer 2005 had a real impact both on the landscape of destruction and on public sensitivity when it comes to the phenomenon of climate change. While the Bush administration still refuses to tackle the topic of carbon dioxide (CO) emissions and global warming, the subject has made its way to the front pages of the US-media and into the cinema.

But things are different since Hurricane "Katrina" led to the flooding of New Orleans on August 28, 2005it provoked an enormous humanitarian crisis, hit the offshore oil exploration rigs and caused the standstill of the main refinery stations in the southern states. The vulnerability of the US economy in the aftermath of such a hurricane and in the absence of diligent disaster relief by the US authorities was highlighted. The price of a barrel of crude passed the US$70 mark. The International Energy Agency (IEA) had to put its petroleum reserves on the market in order to pre-empt a further price escalation. "Katrina" proved to be a literal watershed line for the US public. Climate change has become a shocking reality. It is high time that countries worked together to minimize the dangers of climate change. As long as "only" Bangladesh was hit by extreme monsoon rains or it was just the Sahel zone that suffered another drought, nobody took note of what had happened to the climate and did not seem bothered by the misery of the people in that part of the world.

Since the very beginning of the planning of the conference on "The Energy Gamble" it was clear that we would take into account the fact of climate change as a driving force in redefining tomorrow's energy mix on a global level. One cannot discuss the economic and geopolitical dimension of energy without the impact of climate change. The panelists and participants shared our sensitivity and the ensuing debate gave ample food for thought as Ralitza Petkova and George-Wilhelm Gallhofer aptly describe in their article. When it comes to the North-South conflict this topic can easily provoke further tension in an already fragile relation. The large amount of emissions is mainly from countries with emerging markets and the developing world. It will be a tight-rope walk for diplomacy to strike the balance between global ecological constraints and the evident needs of these countries to develop their economies and thereby cause more emissions.

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