Mexico: UN climate change conference restores trust
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Mexican President Felipe Calderon said on Monday that the main challenge of the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference has been successfully overcome: to restore trust.
Stressing the most important results of the Cancun conference, Calderon said the achievements were a result of the efforts of all countries working toward the well-being of humanity.
"We were able to agree that 'economic growth, overcoming poverty and caring for the environment are compatible,' and we are advancing in the right direction," he said.
Thanks to the participation of governments, lawmakers, businessmen, civil society organizations, native communities and other main actors, progress was made possible in all the topics discussed at the conference, Calderon said.
The president said that one of the achievements was the common goal of maintaining a global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius.
To achieve this goal, developed countries will present mandatory commitments to reduce emissions, and developing countries will take actions to mitigate them, Calderon said, adding that the involvement of developing countries, "even if it is voluntary," will help achieve even greater goals in emission reduction than those established in the Kyoto Protocol.
Calderon said that another achievement will allow both poor and rich countries to have access to friendly technology in order to reduce emissions generated by economic activities.
The countries also agreed to establish regional centers to develop technology and investigate climate change as well as sustainable development, Calderon said.
The conference also agreed to establish the Cancun mechanisms for adaptation, aiming at supporting less developed, more vulnerable countries so that they can combat climate change, he said.
He said that a "Green Fund" was created to finance mitigation and adaptation projects worldwide, mainly in developing countries.
The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) mechanism was also approved, which will have an impact on the deforestation and degradation of forests and jungles.
