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WWF urges deal on Mekong climate

By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-06 11:00

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Monday called for a climate change agreement to protect the environment of the Greater Mekong region that includes southwestern China.

In a report released in Bangkok, the WWF said the Greater Mekong region, as one of the regions with the richest biological diversity on Earth, is already strongly affected by climate change.

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"Greater regional cooperation and coordination among Mekong nations is necessary to best cope with the impacts of climate change. Maintaining ecosystem health across borders and over a larger area is likely the most cost efficient and effective long term adaptation strategy available" said Geoffrey Blate, Climate Change coordinator for the WWF in this region.

The WWF report stressed that the region, an area of 600,000 sq km comprising Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and southwestern China, will undergo major changes due to climate change.

China is active in boosting trade, poverty reduction and assistance and biodiversity conservation in the region, which is home to over 300 million local people. But it is also one of the most vulnerable places when exposed to climate change, especially because of its extensive coastlines and major deltas that are barely above mean sea level, said the report, which was launched during UN Climate Change Talks in Bangkok.

Su Jing, director of the US-China Program of American Council on Renewable Energy, said the WWF's call for regional coordination has placed bigger responsibility on China after President Hu Jintao's commitment at the recent UN climate change summit in New York to help less developed countries fight global warming.

The report also urged politicians to strike an ambitious and fair agreement on a climate treaty at upcoming talks in Copenhagen.

"Rich and developed nations must make deep emission cuts and commit to significant financial help to assist vulnerable regions such as the Greater Mekong," said Kim Carstensen, director of WWF Global Climate Initiative.