US Envoy for Climate Change Praises Qatar s Efforts for Cutting Emissions

Doha, December 3 (QNA) - The United States Special Envoy for Climate Change Todd Stern praised the State of Qatar s efforts and steps towards reaching environmentally friendly energy replacements despite its oil production and exportation. During a press conference held on the sidelines of the eighteenth session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 18) to the United Nations Climate Change Conference, Stern spoke about Gulf nations efforts in the field of allocating wealth sourced from fossil fuels to seek less harmful energy replacements, indicating that no country could completely dispense of its usage in the short-term. COP 18 is an important opportunity to draw paths for discussions over the Kyoto Protocol and long-term partnerships over the Durban platform, he said, adding that Parties had agreements to mitigate climate change from the part of a number of countries both developed and developing as well as other procedures including the launch of a Fund, an executive committee, and another for funding. Fruitful long term partnerships between Parties will require work over the coming years and months, he explained. The Conference aims to end the discussion path and aspires for new agreements to be implemented on everyone starting 2020 and afterwards, he added. The US special envoy for climate change asserted his country's continued commitment to funding the projects for the protection of climate and adaptation to climate change, pointing out that the United States was at the top of the donor countries where it had so far gathered nearly $ 30 billion. since Copenhagen 2009. He said that President Obama since his first term in 2009, he gave consideration for the funding, and attention to issues of climate change and the environment preservation including the green infrastructure pointing in this regard to the adoption of the US administration at the moment for a package of environmentally friendly projects and work to reduce harmful emissions in industries, especially in the field of electricity and facilities, where it prevents the use of coal in the building except for only "very tight." scale. On the possibility that US would remain committed to participate in the international carbon market, which allows industrialized countries to reduce their emissions in a meaningful way in terms of cost, the US Special Envoy for Climate Change noted that his country generally supports all projects and decisions that will eliminate global warming and the various environmental problems, but he said at the same time that each state of a different nature from the other and under certain conditions linked to private interests that necessitate compliance or non-compliance as may be agreed upon by other countries. He said that with the start of the Kyoto Protocol 2009, which resulted in the Convention of the international carbon market, many countries were committed seriously to such agreements, adding: "But we now see that many countries, especially developing countries have become more committed. The US envoy urged countries participating in the 18th United Nations Conference on climate change to expand discussions and negotiations on the funding issue, where the Durban Platform had confirmed that the issue of funding is one of the key issues on the discussions table of the climate change conferences , a matter which is needed to be focused upon in the Doha negotiations. He referred in this context to the US President efforts towards participation in supporting the poor and developing countries to eliminate environmental problems, stressing that the United States had witnessed during the past few years many projects and institutions that have been created with respect to Climate Green Fund and environmentally friendly projects.(END)