UNDP and the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources launch the 2007/2008 Global Human Development Report on Climate Change

Baku, 28 November 2007 - "Climate change presents a major risk to the achievements of recent decade. This year's UNDP Human Development Report recommends immediate drastic action to reduce climate change and help poor countries cope with its consequences", announced UNDP Resident Representative Bruno Pouezat launching the Report at a joint event with Azerbaijan's Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Mr. Huseyn Bagirov

According to UNDP Resident Representative, until very recently there wasn't even any consensus on the existence of climate change: most countries and their governments were very reluctant to take any costly measures to fight the problem. The United Nations brought together the intergovernmental panel on climate change with consisted of more than 2,000 experts on climate issues to come to consensus about the reality of climate change.

The United Nations panel on climate change came to a consensus that climate change is real and was caused by human activity, specifically the burning of fossil, fuel, coal, oil and gas and that climate change will have dramatic consequences in our lifetime and we already see its signs - global temperature rises, glaciers melt, see level rises.

Meanwhile, the UNDP Report 's conclusions are striking: while the rich world is responsible for climate change, the poor world will face first the most serious consequences of the climate change. In fact, the inhabitants of the world's rich countries, roughly 1 billion people or 15% of the world population, are responsible for 50% of carbon dioxide emissions today. But the 1 billion poorest people on the planet, people who live on less than $2 a day are only responsible for 1% of the world carbon dioxide emissions.

Azerbaijan, like other developing and transition countries, does not contribute heavily to climate change, stressed Minister Bagirov. However, he said, his country was interested in actively participating in clean development mechanism. "Our task is to bring in the country environmentally-friendly high technologies. We are not going to sell our carbon quotas, we can exchange part of the quota with modern clean technologies".

The Minister also stressed the importance of closely monitoring the climate change process and its impact on the country. According to him, with support of UNDP, Azerbaijan is working on the Second National Report on Climate Change. His country was in the process of studying the opportunities for using alternative sources of energy like solar and wind energy which do not emit carbon.

Answering the questions of journalists, both the Minister and UNDP Representative underlined that the world can prevent climate change if it takes immediate actions. We have technology, we have the resources but what we need now is essence of urgency and political will around the planet to tackle the issue", the speakers stressed.

For more information:

Ms. Jamila Ibrahimova
Assistant Resident Representative
Tel: 4989888 (ext.112)