News | Energy Efficiency

http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/279369/30-b-committed-industrialized-countries-climate-change-action

UNITED NATIONS, New York – The fight versus global warming is gaining headway with the industrialized countries committing funding of $28 billion to $30 billion to fast-start actions in mitigating climate change menaces.

At a press conference at the UN headquarters, Christiana Figueres, newly-appointed executive director of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), noted that governments “are converging on a need to mandate full set of ways and means to launch a new wave of global climate action.” The “golden key” to trust-building efforts, she said, will be the summit in Cancun, Mexico which shall run from November 29-December 10 this year.
Looking forward to the Cancun conference, the United States has advanced word on its commitment to support moves at finally reaching a legally-binding treaty that will hold countries on their obligation to cut back on their carbon emissions that contribute to global warming.
“As we combat the spread of deadly weapons, we are also confronting the specter of climate change,” US President Barack Obama noted at his address at the 65th UN General Assembly, stressing further that the “power of clean energy” will be the world’s most powerful nation’s driving force to pare its carbon intensity.
America’s support to the initial accord in Copenhagen last year, Mr. Obama enthused, was just the starting point. “Going forward, we will support a process in which all major economies meet our responsibilities to protect our planet, while unleashing the power of clean energy to serve as an engine of growth and development.”
He emphasized that “after making historic achievements in clean energy and efficiency at home, we helped forge an accord in Copenhagen that – for the first time – commits all major economies to reduce their emissions.”
Harnessing ‘green energy’ to fuel much-anticipated economic growths in various parts of the world and to satiate the basic need of a growing population has also been identified by UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon among the action areas to be given priorities under the Millennium Development Goals, especially in line with the 2015 targets.
Ms Figueres, on one hand, acknowledged that governments are so far “on track for a set of agreements to establish a technology mechanism, address deforestation and degradation, and establish a fund to assist developing countries in their mitigation and adaptation efforts