Hundreds of delegates to a UN conference on disasters put the final touches on a pact yesterday that was to reflect strong support for the world body to create a tsunami alert system and help poor nations gird against cyclones, floods and other natural calamities.
But disputes over the wording of the document have underscored differences over just what causes such disasters.
PHOTO: AFP
The five-day meeting that wraps up today in Kobe had been reorganized to focus on finding money and sketching out details for a tsunami warning system for southern Asia, following the Dec. 26 earthquake and killer waves that hammered the Asian and African coastlines. Figures for the number of dead vary widely, from 157,780 to 221,110.
On Thursday, officials from the richest nations pledged roughly US$8 million to begin work on a new tsunami alert network in the Indian Ocean, expected to cost US$30 million and be operational by the middle of next year. A tsunami network in the Pacific, set up in 1965, now protects some 26 nations.
Scientists and officials have agreed on the merits of an Indian Ocean system, which could have allowed coastal residents to flee to safety had it been in place last month. Many support setting up a network that also monitors the Mediterranean, Caribbean and other parts of the globe.
However, they have disagreed about other issues on the conference agenda.
The 25-nation EU has backed poor island nations threatened by storms and rising ocean waters in pushing for a UN action plan -- expected to be adopted at the Kobe conference -- that would refer to climate change as a possible cause of future natural disasters.
But the US delegation, along with officials from Australia and Canada, has demanded that those references be deleted. Negotiations late on Thursday lasted into the early morning hours of yesterday.
"Climate change has become a very political issue," said Maryam Golnaraghi, who heads disaster-prevention at the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization.
A UN-organized group of scientists, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said in a recent assessment of climate science that rising global temperatures could lead to more extreme weather patterns that trigger cyclones and droughts.
Scientists attribute the trend to higher levels of carbon dioxide and other so-called greenhouse gases that occur naturally but have been boosted by factories and cars that burn fossil fuels.
The Kyoto Protocol, which takes effect Feb. 16, aims to limit emissions of those gases, which can trap heat in the atmosphere. US President George W. Bush has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, however, citing economic concerns.
Salvano Briceno, who heads the UN action plan for preventing disasters, played down the battle over the "framework for action." The draft document had cited climate change as a factor in natural disasters and called for officials to identify "climate-related disaster risks."
"It is not the intention of the US or any of the other nations to delete reference to climate change. The issue was whether it [climate change] should be referred to so many times," Briceno, director of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, told reporters on Thursday.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
CYBERSCAM: Anne, an interior decorator with mental health problems, spent a year and a half believing she was communicating with Brad Pitt and lost US$855,259 A French woman who revealed on TV how she had lost her life savings to scammers posing as Brad Pitt has faced a wave of online harassment and mockery, leading the interview to be withdrawn on Tuesday. The woman, named as Anne, told the Seven to Eight program on the TF1 channel how she had believed she was in a romantic relationship with the Hollywood star, leading her to divorce her husband and transfer 830,000 euros (US$855,259). The scammers used fake social media and WhatsApp accounts, as well as artificial intelligence image-creating technology to send Anne selfies and other messages
RSS