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Vulnerable Countries Define Programs Against Climate Change
Warsaw, Nov 14 (Prensa Latina) The most vulnerable countries are defining urgent programs to face the increasing impact of climate change, according to Cristiane Figueres, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Warsaw is currently hosting the UN Climate Change Conference.
Vulnerable countries, almost all of them among the poorest in the world, need action plans to prevent disastrous consequences in the wake of severe meteorological phenomena, such as national programs for adaptation and education.
Science has proven clearly that the causes of climate change are highly preventable, because they are produced by human actions, Figueres sid.
The major powers should raise awareness of the need for a compulsory agreement to establish a new agenda to fight climate change, and that agreement should be prepared before the conference of parties to the UN convention, which is scheduled for 2015 in Paris, he said.
Developed countries could start now supporting poor nations for them in implementing adaptation plans that would allow them to assess the immediate impact of climate change, such as drought, floods and food shortages, and to predict how to minimize the consequences.
Such programs would include water treatment, better waste management, reforestation, environmental education of children, young peole and the population in general, and others.
Of course, poor countries need financing for these efforts, as well as technological support, and it is clear that current support to poor countries in that area is insufficient and inappropriate, Figueres said.
Marcia Livaggi, director of the UN Fund for Adaptation, supported Figueres' proposals.
An urgent aid request for his people by Philippine delegate Naderev Sano, after the devastating path of Typhoon Yolanda, moved many participants here in Warsaw, but what is now necessary is a real commitment to reach a world compulsory agreement in 2015.
"It needs to be an agreement that involves all countries; if not, this conference will not really be useful," he said.
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