Global warming fund sought

Continued...

Common aim

Legarda said disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation “clearly share a common aim and mutual benefit—to reduce vulnerability to disasters and to ensure sustainable development.”

“Inevitably, the two must be linked and the benefits optimized if we are to uphold the welfare of the poor and the most vulnerable,” she said.

Briceño said that the global financial crisis should not “distract” developed nations from putting priority on measures to mitigate the effects of climate change.

He said UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon was recently in New York “to remind world leaders about that.”

Said Rafael Jimenez Aybar, the deputy director of GLOBE-Europe: “You can put pressure on us [rich nations]. We have a moral obligation because we have polluted the environment.”

Aybar, a Spanish citizen, suggested that 25 percent of emission trading revenues, which is expected to reach $25 billion by 2020, be allocated as seed money.

Parties with commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, which aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, have accepted targets for limiting or reducing emissions of carbon.

Under Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, emissions trading allows countries that have unused emission units to sell this excess capacity to countries that are over their targets.

Thus, a new commodity, which can be tracked and traded, has been created in the form of emission reductions or removals. Continued...