FSM Attends Climate Change Meeting in GenevaPALIKIR, Pohnpei (FSM Information Service) - FSM Climate Change Coordinator Heidi Prime and Foreign Service Officer Carl Apis from FSM Department of External Affairs represented the FSM at the UN Climate Change Meetings, February 26 to March 8, 19, in Geneva, Switzerland. Climate Change has become a major global concern for the industrial and non-industrialized countries, both large and small, particularly the low lying island states which are susceptible to inu ndation from the continuing sea level rise as a result of global warming from damaging industrial emissions, auto exhaust and burning of fossil fuels. Apis and Prime attended the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) subsidiary body meetings intended to further negotiate for future commitments that follow from the Berlin Mandate of April, 1995. Prime gave a presentation to the Subsidiary Body for Science and Technological Advice (SBSTA) on FSM's progress to date. Primo, along with Aileen Gilimete, Climate Change Program Assistant attended a one week, session for Climate Change coordinators and support staff from eleven countries which received funding from the US in order to produce a National Action Plan for Climate Change, for submission to the UNFCCC Secretariat by the end of this year. The US presented guidelines and information on technical assistance that Washington plans to make available to participating countries. Much of this is geared towards energy conservation and potential solar energy projects. Wider use of solar energy would avoid burning gasoline and kerosene which leads to the global warming problems, said Prime. |