13:38 | Lima, Oct. 12 (ANDINA).
Peru's Deputy Minister of Strategic Development of Natural Resources Gabriel Quijandría attended as a keynote speaker the joint meeting of the Permanent Council of the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Inter-American Council for Integral Development (CIDI) on the how to fight climate change
Government representatives from Peru and France participated Friday in the OAS high-level meeting, as both countries will organize the upcoming UN global conferences on the subject, which will continue the search for a global agreement on climate change.
The Chair of the Council and Permanent Representative of Peru, Walter Alban, said that in the context of
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change there have already been "long and difficult negotiations to achieve a comprehensive agreement and binding approach to address the serious impact on the global atmosphere produced by human activity."
The Peruvian diplomat stressed the importance of COP 20 meetings (Conference of the Parties)
to be held in Lima, Peru, in December 2014; and COP 21, to be held in Paris, France, in 2015, to achieve a "universal agreement" on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, designated as responsible for climate change.
Ambassador Alban also noted that in the Western Hemisphere there are "regions such as the Caribbean and Central America, which are among the most vulnerable to climatic phenomena.”
Likewise, the Deputy Minister Quijandría, said global warming threatens to cause serious economic, social and environmental disturbances, and according to the scientific evidence, "if no concrete action is taken urgently, climate change may eventually change the geography of the coast, depriving us of fresh water and drastically reducing the production of food and energy."
Moreover, Peru's top official said that in the Andean country, which is home to over half the world's tropical glaciers, " the progressive and increasingly rapid loss of the ice cap has been monitored for decades, which is the most important water reserve for cities like Lima, a metropolis of nine million inhabitants, that it is the second most populous city in the world located in a desert."
For his part, Pascal Canfin, Deputy Minister of Development in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, said his country wants to work with Peru so that the 2014 and 2015 conferences share a "common vision.”
He also said that several countries in the region like Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica, have a major role to play in the climate change negotiations.
The French representative said that the developed countries must take responsibility for the issue of greenhouse gases. In relation to the Americas, he said that "the emerging countries of the Americas have a fundamental and decisive role to be able to present topics for discussion."
During the meeting the representatives of Guyana, Haiti, Mexico, Colombia, Chile, the United States, Brazil, Bolivia and Costa Rica took the floor.
(END) INT/LOG
Published: 10/12/2013