FSM Attends Climate Change Meeting in Geneva

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FSM Attends Climate Change Meeting in Geneva

PALIKIR, 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.