Tropical countries should make commitments to curtail deforestation and forest degradation to ameliorate the effects of climate change, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica's environment and energy minister, said on the sidelines of COP24 on Friday.
KATOWICE (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th December, 2018) Tropical countries should make commitments to curtail deforestation and forest degradation to ameliorate the effects of climate change, Carlos Manuel Rodriguez, Costa Rica's environment and energy minister, said on the sidelines of COP24 on Friday."Tropical countries need to begin stopping high rates of deforestation and forest degradation. If you begin decreasing the rates of deforestation and forest degradation, the cost of climate actions will decrease dramatically," Rodriguez told journalists.
The minister also expressed regret that some countries with "high budgets" tend to spend money on defense and arms instead of investing in climate-related activities.
The 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) is taking place on December 2-14 in the Polish city of Katowice. The main goal of the conference participants is to discuss ways of implementing the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
The Paris climate deal, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, went into force on November 4, 2016. It has been ratified by 184 of the 197 parties to the accord. The deal aims to keep the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
