KENYA/FILE: Global conference on climate change opens in Nairobi

Kenyan vice president Moody Awori opened a major conference on climate change in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on Monday (November 6). Delegates at the 189-nation Nov 6-17 talks will try to find ways to widen the UN's Kyoto Protocol, capping emissions of greenhouse gases by 35 industrial nations until 2012, to include outsiders such as the United States, China and India. Top UN officials including Undersecretary General Anna Tibaijuka, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, Yvo de Boer and several government officials were present at the opening of the Nairobi talks which aim at fixing a plan beyond 2012 for fighting warming that could spur more floods, droughts, spread disease and raise sea levels by almost a metre (three ft) by 2100. "Distinguished delegates, we are all gathered here this morning on behalf of humankind throughout the world, because we acknowledge the fact that climate change is rapidly emerging as one of the most serious threats that humanity may ever face." said Awori. The talks will separately try to aid Africa and the rest of the developing world to adapt to climate change -- with everything from drought-resistant crops to better flood protection. It said that the number of people in Africa at risk from coastal flooding would rise to 70 million by 2080 from 1 million in 1990 and that 25-40 percent of habitats could be lost. Cereal crop yields could fall by 5 percent by 2080. "We must therefore resolve to protect our scarce resources otherwise our people will continue to languish in perpetual poverty. Disasters such as droughts and famine are as a result of climate change which we must boldly accept as a challenge, all of us," Awori said. And the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) urged citizens around the world to act to cut greenhouse gas emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, rather than wait for negotiators. At the talks, European nations will try to push the United States and developing countries to get more involved in restraining the growth of greenhouse gases. Washington pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying caps on emissions would cost U.S. jobs and that the plan wrongly left developing nations out of targets for 2012. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed in London on Friday (November 3) to work to build a strong international alliance. A British report last week warned of apocalyptic long-term costs of ignoring climate change. Of the top four emitters of greenhouse gases -- the U.S., China, Russia and China -- only Russia is bound by Kyoto. Developing nations say Kyoto countries should lead the way, arguing that they are mainly responsible for warming widely blamed on burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars. But emissions in developing nations are surging. At last year's talks in Montreal, ministers agreed to fix new rules "as soon as possible" and to ensure no gap between the end of Kyoto in 2012 and the start of a new system in 2013.

ITN Source | November 6, 2006

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