LatAm Nations Agree to Combat Climate Change Agencia EFE
go to original March 20, 2014

Environment Ministers of Latin America and the Caribbean in Los Cabos, Mexico (Guyana Times)

LOS CABOS, Mexico - Participants in the 19th Latin American and Caribbean Environment Ministers Forum, held in this northwestern city, agreed to promote a program of regional cooperation on climate change in areas of common interest.

At the end of the three-day meeting, delegates published a final declaration noting that the plan will be designed jointly by Mexico, which presided over that forum, and Peru, as the seat of the Conference to the Parties of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP20, to be held in Lima in December.

The plan will also have the support of countries that took part in the forum, and of the U.N. Environment Program (UNEP), with the clear objective of "adopting actions against the consequences of the increasing frequency of extreme climatic events."

The nations of Latin America and the Caribbean are responsible for 12.5 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, and could constitute one of the regions hit hardest by the effects of climate change.

"Rapid urban, agricultural and industrial growth in the region have meant that air pollution and the generation of residues represent an ever greater concern for the region due to their serious impacts on public health, human well-being and the sustainability of ecosystems," the document said.

The ministers made a commitment to develop public policies aimed at taking on the underlying causes of the loss of biodiversity and the degrading of ecosystems, in particular woodlands, while promoting conservation, restoration, sustainable use and the fair, equitable distribution of profits.

See the original at La Prensa

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