UNESCO Unveils Its Plan To Counter Climate Change

UNESCO Unveils Its Plan To Counter Climate Change

New York, Dec 17 2009 11:10AM Helping to expand climate science is just one of the contributions the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is making in the fight against climate change, the organization’s head has stressed.

“Thanks to its interdisciplinary capacities, UNESCO can render a unique contribution to mitigation and adaptation to climate change through distinct action in education, the sciences, culture, communication and information,” Director-General Irina Bokova announced yesterday in Copenhagen, Denmark, where nations are set to wrap up negotiations tomorrow on a new agreement.

In particular, she said, UNESCO can assist in expanding the knowledge base of climate science through its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), in close collaboration with the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO), to better understand and forecast climate phenomena.

UNESCO also seeks to further education on climate change though teacher training, educational strategies and curricula revision, among other actions, as part of the UN Decade on Education for Sustainable Development. Further, the agency will promote cultural and biological diversity, as well as deal with the various ethical and social dimensions of climate change, including migration issues.

Yesterday, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said that emissions reductions and financing remain the key issues in the talks on a new climate change agreement in Copenhagen.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that to stave off the worst effects of climate change, industrialized countries must slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020, and that global emissions must be halved by 2050.

“I hope that the developed countries should come out with more ambitious mid-term target by 2020 against the 1990 level,” Mr. Ban told reporters in Copenhagen.

The other main issue, he said, is “the most important key to bridge the gap between the developed countries and the developing,” and he called for “sufficient financial and technological support for the developing countries, particularly the most vulnerable states.

ENDS

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