Brussels, 29/04/2014 (Agence Europe) - The experts of the 79 countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) linked to the European Union by the Cotonou Agreement are getting together to tackle climate change. The intra-ACP programme of the Global Climate Change Alliance (GCCA) - an initiative of the group of ACP states financed by the EU and implemented by the ACP Secretariat - will hold its second regional technical meeting in Brussels from 5 to 7 May.
High-level representatives of regional organisations, embassies and missions of the ACP to Brussels, the European Union, civil society and the private sector will explore ways of improving the exchange of information, synergies, cooperation and coordination between the ACP regions as well as between the regions and the ACP Secretariat, in order to add to and enhance the efforts made to fight climate change in the countries and regions of the ACP.
“The ACP countries are suffering the devastating effects of climate change, which have already had a negative impact on resources such as land and water, but also food production. It is therefore vital for immediate steps to be taken to protect their means of subsistence”, stressed Achille Bassilekin III, Under-Secretary General of the ACP Secretariat with responsibility for the sustainable economic development and trade department (our translation). The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was published in March (part II of the fifth report on the impact of climate change, adaptation and vulnerability), confirmed the urgent need to act, stressing that inadequate responses to emerging impacts are already jeopardising the basis for sustainable development.
The results of this meeting will feed into preparations for the forthcoming UN conference on climate change (COP20, Lima, December 2014). The intra-ACP programme of the GCCA targets the group of ACP states, offering them technical assistance to support the fight against climate change. The first meeting was held in Belize in July 2013. (AN)