[R-G] [Granma] Climate change: greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century

[Macdonald Stainsby]

Climate change: greatest environmental challenge of the 21st century
• Focus of discussion at gathering of 800 experts from 30 countries
• Master lecture by UNEP executive director Achim Steiner

BY LILLIAM RIERA — Granma International staff writer —

HOW to confront climate change, considered the greatest environmental 
challenge of the 21st century, was the important focus of discussion at 
the 6th International Convention on Environment and Development which, 
at the close of this edition, was meeting in Havana attended by 800 
experts from 30 Ibero-American, European and North American countries.

At the event, which featured five conferences, Achim Steiner, director 
of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and Susan Mc Dade, 
permanent representative of the UN Development Programme (UNDP) in Cuba, 
were scheduled to give master lectures.

The conferences taking place within the convention were: the 6th on 
Environmental Education; the 1st on Water Resources; the 1st on 
Ecosystems and Biodiversity; the 5th on Protected Areas, and the 3rd on 
Environmental Management.

During the convention, Doctor José Antonio Díaz-Duque, Cuban deputy 
minister of science, technology and the environment, was to present the 
National Environmental Strategy for 2007-2010. Experts from various 
CITMA agencies will address Cuba’s experience in eliminating substances 
that are harming the ozone layer; regulatory activity as a tool for 
protecting the environment, and scientific development for managing the 
environment and natural resources.

In addition, the results of Cuban-Venezuelan cooperation in preventing 
and mitigating global and local environmental problems were to be 
detailed, and a Chilean-Cuban meeting was scheduled to discuss 
experiences and lessons learned for the conservation of sea and coastal 
biodiversity.

Participants were also to discuss current trends in desertification and 
drought; the interrelationship between environment and society and its 
importance for sustainable management of ecosystems, and the sustainable 
development of Cuba’s mountain areas: 20 years of Plan Turquino, among 
other themes.

Likewise, products and services were to be presented at a parallel 
Fair/Exposition. Another feature is a display of drawings of Cuban 
endemic birds and macaws of the Americas, by Antonio Guerrero, one of 
the Cuban Five serving unjust sentences in U.S. prisons for combating 
terrorism.

-- 
Macdonald Stainsby
Coordinator, http://oilsandstruth.org
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    --Bertholt Brecht.