Ecuador to host int'l meeting on climate change

ECUADOR, Aug. 13, 2007 -- A major international meeting on climate change, known as Clima Latino, was announced today for this coming October by the General Secretariat of the Andean Community and the Quito and Guayaquil Municipalities, organizers of the event.

At press conferences held at 11:00 a.m. in Quito and 4:00 p.m. in Guayaquil, the organizers reported that the meeting will bring together the foremost world experts and government representatives, local actors and the interested public, together with representatives of civil society and delegates from governments, municipalities, the major institutions, universities and NGOs on October 15 and 16 in Guayaquil, and October 17 and 18 in Quito.

The objective of Clima Latino -- as they pointed out -- is to sound a warning about the imminent dangers of climate change and particularly its effects on the Andean countries, Latin America and the Caribbean and, at the same time, to put forward proposals for confronting the problem.

The meeting will address all matters concerning climate change. International experts will deliver keynote presentations on a variety of subjects: coasts and oceans, the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, coastal management proposals, the carbon market, responsible enterprises, eco-cities, the policy for the future, Andes and Amazonia, biodiversity and local communities, glaciers, water and soil, risk management, new epidemics, the children, and a new development model and challenges for the future.

Clima Latino will also include workshops for the discussion of international negotiations; extreme climatic disasters and phenomena; marine and land biodiversity, effects of climate change on health; education; glaciers and water; risk management and agriculture; municipal strategies for dealing with climate change; vulnerability of Andean and Amazonia communities; biofuels and alternative energy sources, and mitigation of the effects of climate change.

A series of artistic and cultural activities will take place at the same time, such as a movie festival, photography exhibit, display of cartoons with environmental themes, and concerts featuring performers committed to the struggle against climate change. The exhibitions, which will be housed in museums and showrooms, will display the use of appropriate techniques for adjustment to climate change and the reduction of emissions.

This is the most important event to be held in Latin America and the Caribbean on Climate Change and its recommendations will be extremely important for the XIII Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change, a United Nations-sponsored world event on the subject to take place next December in Bali, Indonesia. It will also serve as a preparatory event for the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean (EU-LAC) Presidential Summit scheduled for next year in Lima, Peru, the key topic of which will be climate change and the struggle against poverty.

###