Concrete, immediate actions needed on climate change: Mexico's FM

Immediate and concrete action on climate change was important for the international community, specially developing countries, Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said Wednesday.

During an interview with Xinhua, Espinosa said the topic of climate change was very important, however, the international community could not reach agreements that could be implemented immediately.

"We think that the worse possible scenario, mainly for the developing countries, the more vulnerable ones, is a lack of agreement of the developed countries to give technical or financial supports to the developing ones. Clearly, the developed countries have the obligation to do so," said Espinosa, whose country will host the next climate change summit at the end of the year.

Espinosa said, "a new treaty could be reached" at the summit, to be held at Cancun, to make sure "all those commitments are turned into concrete actions".

"We have a law frame, we have clear obligations, very clear commitments established in the Convention (the U.N. Frame Convention on Climate Change) and the Kyoto Protocol. What we do not have are specific quantified goals for each one," she said.

Espinosa also hailed the work being done by China in this area. She said: "A big country like China, it has launched a series of great actions to both seek the growth its economy and to reduce the emissions."

Mexico was severely affected by hurricane Alex, "but all the countries were paying the costs (of climate change). In China, there were big floods just few days ago, which have killed many people and caused great destruction". It was a clear fact that the world had to act to fight climate change, she said.

Source: Xinhua