Reducing greenhouse gas emissions should be a collective responsibility shouldered by countries around the globe, and Kuwait has already begun using clean energy resources, the visiting Kuwaiti Oil Minister Ali Al-Omair said.
Kuwait shares the international community's concern over climate change, growing greenhouse gas emissions and supports global endeavors for addressing this phenomenon in a collective manner, Minister Al-Omair said in a speech before the 2014 Climate Summit in New York, late on Tuesday. He however noted in this respect that emission's volume differs from one country to another.
Al-Omair, also Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs, hoped all these efforts would contribute to a climate change agreement in Paris in 2015, within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Al-Omair highlighted Kuwait's contribution to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions, the summit's main theme.
Kuwait respects the international demands to address emissions, but takes into consideration the need for sustainable development, economic, social development and diversification of the economy, the Kuwaiti official added. It began using renewable resources as wind and solar energies, while the oil sector launched a strategy to manage greenhouse gases emissions at its facilities, explained Al-Omair, who is accompanying the representative of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, to the UN General Assembly's (UNGA) session.
He meanwhile said the pricing of the carbon should be in line with the principles of the UNFCCC.
Carbon pricing is a method of reducing global-warming emissions by imposing charges on polluters. The UNFCC, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is an international environmental treaty reached at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) (informally known as the Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro, June, 1992. The treaty is also aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere.
Kuwait, he said, believed that an active action against the climate change should be through the enhancement of the international multi-faceted legal system and within the framework of the UNFCCC.
Source: KUNA
Photo: scientificamerican.com
