Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel urged today the promotion of international cooperation to face the climate change that specially affects the islands and those with low level of development.
Speaking at the Virtual Summit on Climate Ambition, the Cuban head of state insisted on the need for the countries of the so-called First World to assume a leadership of solidarity in reducing emissions and providing the necessary means of implementation to poor nations.
Let us not continue to compromise human survival with irrational selfishness, he demanded at the meeting prior to the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP26), to be held in November 2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Diaz-Canel pointed out that the Cuban State Plan for Confronting Climate Change involves all sectors of the economy and society in adaptation and mitigation actions, and contains ambitious goals aimed mainly at Agriculture and Energy.
These activities generate more than 90 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Cuban archipelago.
Despite the complex situation resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic and the tightening of the U.S. blockade, the island remains committed to achieving an energy matrix with 24 percent of electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030, he said.
He also said that the island is working to reduce by half the use of fossil fuels in land vehicles and to increase forest coverage in its territory to 33 percent.
The Climate Ambition 2020 Summit brought together government leaders, experts and civil society representatives to agree on commitments to fulfill the Paris Agreement, adopted on December 12, 2015.
(Taken from Prensa Latina)