Uniting for a cleaner future
September 1st, 2008 - by Nazia Vasi
After forming a free trade regional clique last week, Asian nations united in Dhaka, Bangladesh for a cleaner greener future. The group decided to jointly fight climate change, reduce greenhouse gases and help each other during a natural calamity. The group also stood together against developed nations urging them to spend 0.5-1 percent of their GDP to help the developing world face the challenge posed by climate change and make good their unfulfilled commitments towards cutting back on greenhouse emissions. The move seeks to pressure these nations to part with funds committed under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
The region — which includes Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives — is prone to incessant monsoon rains, drought, heat waves, frost freezes, desertification and salinization, all of which experts attribute to climate change.
The clique also targeted depleting food supplies, a consequence of climate change. According to the U.N.’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the International herald tribune said that due to low crop yields over the past decades, about 312 million people, or nearly 21 percent of the region’s 1.5 billion people — including half of its children — still do not get enough to eat.
“The adverse effects of climate change are a major barrier to food security and achievement of sustainable development goals in South Asia,” Ad Spijkers, Food and Agricultural Organization’s representative in Dhaka, told the IHT.
Experts at the programme observed that climate change will increase temperature, decrease availability of fresh water, contribute to the rise in sea level, glacial melting in the Himalayas, increased frequency and intensity of extreme events, and shifting of cropping zones in South Asia affecting agriculture and food sector, economy, societies and environment.
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