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UN:
DESERTIFICATION, CLIMATE CHANGE COMBINE TO THREATEN DEVELOPMENT - BAN KI-MOON:
13/9/2007
(MaximsNews.com, U.N.) |
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 13 September 2007 –
The linked scourges of desertification and
climate change are impeding the achievement of key development targets, United
Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday.
The
“twin threats” of desertification and climate change “pose unrivalled
challenges to humanity,” he said in a message to the Conference of the Parties
to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) in running from 3-14
September in Madrid. “They demand an unprecedented response from all of us.”
Desertification
and climate change, which he characterized as “two major manifestations of the
same problem,” also are obstacles to reaching the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs), the series of eight anti-poverty targets, by 2015.
Greenhouse
gas emissions from human activities have contributed to global warming, he
noted, while shifting weather patterns could potentially aggravate
desertification, drought and food security for people living in dry areas,
especially in Africa.
The
Secretary-General said that global warming can also lead to increased poverty,
forced migration and vulnerability to conflict in regions impacted by extreme
weather events.
“Conversely,
concerted efforts to combat desertification – by reclaiming degraded land,
combating soil loss and restoring vegetation – can help curb greenhouse gas
emissions, strengthen the resilience of affected countries and build their
capacity to adapt to climate change,” he said.
Mr. Ban
voiced hope that both the Conference, which is meeting in its eighth session,
and a high-level informal dialogue on climate change scheduled for 24 September
in New York will set the stage for the upcoming major December summit in Bali,
Indonesia.
That
meeting seeks to determine future action on mitigation, adaptation, the global
carbon market and financing responses to climate change for the period after the
expiry of the Kyoto Protocol – the current global framework for reducing
greenhouse gas emissions – in 2012.
Last
week, the Secretary-General appointed Luc Gnacadja, a former environment
minister from Benin, as the UNCCD’s new Executive Secretary. He will succeed
Hama Arba Diallo of Burkina Faso, who resigned on 19 June.
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