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Unity key to countering effects of climate change

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ENVIRONMENT, Water and Climate Minister Saviour Kasukuwere has hailed the unity shown by African environment ministers who spoke with one voice at the just ended climate summit in New York.
Speaking to The Patriot Kasukuwere said the just ended climate summit had managed to mobilise the much needed support for the 2015 Paris Talks.
“The summit was successful in that it managed to galvanise political commitment towards the 2015 Paris Talks,” Kasukuwere said.
The minister expressed satisfaction with the country’s response to climate change issues.
“As a country we are happy that we have just finished with the climate response strategy and what we are now working on is a national climate policy which will see us mainstreaming climate change issues in all areas of our economy like fisheries and other areas so that our people can be able to adapt to climate change.”
The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21 or CMP11 to be held in Paris, France in 2015 will be the 21st session.
The conference’s objective is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate from all the nations.
All governments will be expected to accelerate their approaches to decarbonisation significantly by initiating much stricter emission reductions and pursuing sustainable energy policies.
The 2014 Climate Summit was held to raise political momentum for a meaningful, universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015 and to galvanise transformative action in all countries to reduce emissions and build resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change.
More than 100 Heads of State and Government attended the summit.
Apart from environment leaders and heads of state, 800 leaders from business, finance and civil society also attended the climate summit.
Encouraging is the fact the acknowledgement by world leaders that climate issues must be dealt with within the context of eradicating extreme poverty and promotion of sustainable development.
The commitment to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius a year and to take actions consistent with a less than 2 degree C pathway was a great milestone.
The leaders also committed to finalising a meaningful, universal new agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Paris in 2015 and to arrive at the first draft of the agreement by December 2014.
It was agreed that the new agreement should be effective, durable and comprehensive and that it should balance support for mitigation and adaptation.
The launch of a large-scale commitment to double the rate of global energy efficiency by 2030 through vehicle fuel efficiency, lighting, appliances, buildings and district energy was also witnessed with the leaders also signalling their support for a new Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition which will drive action aimed at strengthening carbon pricing policies.
According to Wikipedia the majority of the adverse effects of climate change are experienced by poor and low-income communities around the world, who have much higher levels of vulnerability to environmental determinants of health, wealth and other factors, and much lower levels of capacity available for coping with environmental change.
A report on the global human impact of climate change published by the Global Humanitarian Forum in 2009, estimated more than 300 000 deaths and about US$125 billion in economic losses each year, indicating that most climate change induced mortality is due to worsening floods and droughts in developing countries.
This also raises questions of climate justice, since the 50 least developed countries of the world account for not more than one percent of worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases.

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