Sudan Tribune
January 22, 2008 (KHARTOUM) — Sudanese government has reaffirmed its commitment to fight against harmful effects of climate change in the country and exert the necessary efforts to address environment challenges.
The United Nations Development Programme on Tuesday in Khartoum launched the Global Human Development Report 2007/2008, under the theme: Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world.
Speaking at the meeting organised at this occasion, Ms. Tereza Ciricio, State Minister of Environment and Physical Development said pledged that its ministry "will play a key role to cooperate and coordinate efforts with all stakeholders at all levels, to address the global environment challenges".
The Sudanese minister asserted that the developing countries are the most disproportionately vulnerable to crisis and social upheaval engendered by climate change.
The launch presentations of the Report provided an opportunity to discuss the effects of heavy carbon pollution on regions such as Sub-Saharan Africa; threatening progress in health, education and poverty reduction.
The presentations also examined climate change in the context of Sudan such as land degradation, deforestation, desertification and other impacts of climate change that threaten the prospects of lasting peace and sustainable development in the country.
The Report generally outlines a framework for climate change negotiations and stresses that a narrow 10-year window of opportunity remains to put it into practice. If that window is missed, temperature rises of above two degrees Celsius could see an extra 600 million people in sub-Saharan Africa go hungry, increasing the recurrence of epidemics and mosquito-borne diseases in the region.
Emphasizing the inevitability of climate change and the particular vulnerability of Sudan and Africa as a whole, Ms. Ameerah Haq, the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Sudan said “the world lacks neither the financial resources, nor the ability to develop the technology to act. What is missing is a sense of urgency, of human solidarity and collective interest.”
Mr. Clive Bates, UNEP, Programme Manager spoke of the impact of climate change and how it increases current environmental degradation such as the considerable deforestation in Sudan. Mr. Bates said “Now that UNEP has recently established an office in Sudan, we are looking forward to working closely with the Ministry of Environment and Physical Development to jointly address these issues”.
Sudanese experts and academia, representatives of the private sector, local and international NGOs engaged in environmental work, representatives of the United Nations, international development partners and key government officials attended the launch of the report.
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