wild places | wild happenings | wild news
make a difference for our wild places

home | links | search the site
  all articles latest | past | articles by topics | search wildnews
wild news on wildsingapore
  Straits Times 4 Aug 07
Singapore 'already making green choices'
UN Ambassador tells climate change session the Republic has long-term strategies
By Betsy Pisik

NEW YORK - SINGAPORE'S UN ambassador has told the first UN General Assembly session exclusively devoted to climate change that the country is taking steps to reduce its demands on the environment.

Singapore was among nearly 100 countries at the meeting signalling strong support for negotiations on a new global deal to tackle global warming.

There was so much interest among worried nations - many facing drought, floods and searing heat - that the two-day meeting was extended for an extra day to Thursday so that more countries could describe their climate-related problems, how they are coping, and the help they need.

Mr Vanu Gopala Menon, Singapore's representative, said Singaporeans had already begun to make environment-friendly choices, such as using public transport and choosing efficient appliances.

The government is adopting long-term strategies and targeted investments such as the Marina Barrage, a combination water reservoir and bulwark against rising seas, Mr Menon noted.

'In Singapore, we are taking climate change seriously,' Mr Menon said on Wednesday afternoon.

'We have commissioned a vulnerability study to assess its long-term effects on our island. We are looking at the change in rainfall patterns, the rise in the sea level and the increase in the prevalence of extreme weather. Any of these could buffet us.'

Britain's Emyr Jones Parry said 'the world is actually motivated on the (climate change) issue in a way it wasn't' in January - 'and the political momentum has to just grow and grow'.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said his country is committed to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change which will convene in Bali in December, and its objective of stabilising the concentration of greenhouse gases.

'We now have the momentum,' General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa told delegates at the closing session on Thursday evening. 'We need to ensure that we agree on an equitable, fair and ambitious global deal to match the scale of the challenges ahead.'

Clinching that deal will likely take several years of intense and difficult negotiations, which are expected to start at the two-week Bali conference. It will focus on a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol, which requires 35 industrial nations to cut their global-warming emissions by 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012, when the accord expires.

The United Nations has begun to play a greater role in coordinating a global response. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, who has made climate change a top priority since taking charge of the UN at the start of the year, said he is convening a high-level meeting on climate change on Sept 24, a day before the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting begins.

The question of what to do to tackle climate change has become increasingly complex because of competing environmental, economic and energy concerns from countries with different priorities.

Big nations such as the US, China and Brazil fear emissions limits would hurt their economic growth. Oil-producing countries are concerned that a major source of revenue is going to be harmed by climate change action in the future

At the same time, small island states in the Pacific are demanding action to deal with rising sea levels that could wipe them off the map. Singapore has similar concerns about rising seas and dwindling resources, and its efforts to explore alternative energy strategies and integrate green technologies mirror those of many progressive industrialised nations.

Among those: all new government buildings - including the housing for 80 per cent of the population - will meet tough new Green Mark standards for energy efficiency.

'My point is that we do not need to just wait for a comprehensive international solution. There are many things that our countries can do now,' Mr Menon said.

BPisik@aol.com ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS
links
Climate deal talks gain global support
By Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Yahoo News 3 Aug 07

Related articles on Singapore: general environmental issues
about the site | email ria
  News articles are reproduced for non-profit educational purposes.
 

website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com