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External sources (not reviewed)

Other suggested areas of priority attention included: climate change, disaster prevention and preparedness, minimizing biodiversity loss through sustainable management of resources, renewable energies, the formulation of national strategies in science and technology, the promotion of local and indigenous knowledge systems as well as improving the links between scientists and decision-makers.

The Ministers emphasized that oceans and coasts provide valuable resources and services to support humankind and that the sustainable use of marine living resource will enhance global food security and increase resilience to climate change for present and future generations; they further emphasized the need to develop comprehensive adaption measure to address climate related impacts on oceans and coasts, including through greater capacity building, enhanced scientific monitoring activities and to promote environmentally sound policies for integrated coastal and ocean management.

During this session, the SHS and SC Commissions examined the resolution proposed in document 35 C/COM SC/DR.1 (submitted by: Austria, Belgium, Plurinational State of Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Congo, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominican Republic, Finland, Iceland, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Portugal, Samoa, Senegal, Slovenia, Sweden, Tuvalu, Uruguay; co-sponsored by: Barbados, Costa Rica, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Malaysia, Monaco, Pakistan, Solomon Islands, Suriname, and Zambia), requesting the Director-General to strengthen UNESCO’s specialized capacity on climate change, building upon UNESCO’s unique interdisciplinary profile.

In addition to the common documents being considered under agenda item 3, the Commission had before it the report of the Committee on Disaster Risk Reduction on its second session (E/ESCAP/68/11) and two information documents: the report of the Typhoon Committee (E/ESCAP/68/INF/6) and the report of the Panel on Tropical Cyclones (E/ESCAP/68/INF/7).

One country appealed to developed countries to fulfil numerous pledges to mitigate the impacts of climate change and sea level rise, and to advance the sustainable development agenda to achieve meaningful results at the Rio+20 Conference and beyond.

A network is also more likely to provide higher resilience to catastrophic events and other changes in the environment, such as climate change.

Changing demographics and poor technological and socio-economic conditions, unplanned urbanization, development within high-risk zones, underdevelopment and poor infrastructure, weak adaptive capacity, environmental degradation, climate variability, climate change, exposure to geological hazards, competition for scarce resources, and the impact of epidemics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis all increase the vulnerability of least developed countries to natural hazards.

The Conference acknowledged the specific challenges and needs of member countries in the Pacific and other small island nations, particularly with respect to high vulnerability to climate change impacts, and urged FAO and other development partners to give due consideration and adequate resources to address these needs.

The results of the desk study should also be considered by the Secretariat when preparing a policy paper on a "facility for additional income from loans and other sources" as per decision 55/2, taking into account: the benefits for both ozone and climate change, the need for the timely implementation of projects in order to adhere to the compliance schedule of the Montreal Protocol, and the need for the development of an exit strategy.

Pregnant women may not be required to work in the conditions of high air pressure, in the case of an existence of a risk of rubella, risk of toxoplasmosis, nor perform work with lead and its toxic compounds, underground work, work at night, and manual moving of heavy objects.

The delegation of Thailand also noted that the discussions and recommendations for action from the Asia-Pacific Urban Forum were very useful and should be implemented to promote sustainable urban development in the region, and particularly requested the secretariat to prioritize three areas of work: firstly, to develop criteria and standards for city classification, such as “sustainable city”, “eco-city”, and “green industrial city” to provide a guideline for benchmarking sustainable urban development at the regional and subregional levels; secondly, to develop databases and networks at the regional and subregional levels that would include urban and rural population statistics and economic, social and physical data, including environment and geo-climatic data; and thirdly, to hold a symposium on urban climate change among member States in order to exchange experiences and best practices towards achieving sustainable city development.

He also referred to the impact of climate change and the enormous financial amounts spent on the coastal areas owing to the severity of the hurricanes.

Areas to be addressed shall include: prophylaxis, studies on pathogenicity and virulence, diagnostic techniques, aerobiology, detection, treatment, toxinology, physical protection, decontamination and other related research.

(b) and includes any component part of any weapon mentioned in paragraph (a) (i) or (ii), any accessory to any such weapon designed or adapted to diminish the noise or flash caused by firing the weapon and any explosive-operated power tool, ramset, hilt or fire nail fastener operated by pneumatic pressure; (c) but does not include an article designed or adapted solely to discharge a spear for spearing fish.

Retorque the air valve fasteners (V) in a crisscross pattern to specified torque.

We thus reiterate our call on the international community, including the Security Council, to uphold their responsibilities under the Charter, international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law, and the relevant United Nations resolutions to compel Israel to cease all illegal policies and measures in order to stem the deterioration of the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and to promote a climate truly conducive to the pursuit of peace.

Certain aspects of the transport of Malian oil and gas to terminals in neighbouring countries need more detailed study, namely: integration and harmonization of the regulations of the different countries; and understandings and/or arrangements with neighbouring countries with which Mali shares sedimentary basins.

1.47 Resources from the support account for peacekeeping operations and extrabudgetary resources would: (a) support the Global Compact initiative in facilitating cooperation among key stakeholders and promoting partnerships in support of United Nations goals; (b) supplement the work of the Office of Political, Peacekeeping and Humanitarian Affairs on issues relating to peacekeeping; (c) assist the Secretary-General in the exercise of his good offices and peacemaking activities in all regions of the world; (d) be used for special projects to be undertaken by the Office of the Secretary-General; (e) support the activities of the United Nations High Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations; and (f) support the Secretary-General’s priority agenda relating to climate change and the work of the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability.

Given that the Arab region is facing ever-increasing risks as a result of the degradation of environmental systems and the natural disasters that are occurring regularly because of increasing geological and climate changes, which have a direct impact on lives, infrastructure, means of livelihood and sustainable development, we affirm implementation of the Arab strategy to reduce disaster risk 2020 and commitment to the Arab declaration and statement on climate change and the related resolutions, and promise to devise an Arab plan for dealing with climate change.

In the light of the progress made, the lessons learned and the constraints on implementation of the Mauritius Strategy highlighted in the present report and in the three regional review meetings, Member States may wish to consider concentrating on the following four areas, where focused actions are needed most to further address the vulnerabilities and support the sustainable development of small island developing States: (a) strengthening support for national sustainable development strategies and national development planning processes; (b) supporting initiatives towards sustainable energy development; (c) strengthening the resilience of fragile ecosystems to the impacts of climate change; and (d) supporting partnership initiatives for action in the further implementation of the Programme of Action.

The same test, performed with natural gas, would give equal or higher results.

These include: a deep-sea port being constructed on the Indian Ocean near the Rakhine State capital of Sittwe, and parallel road, high-speed rail, and oil and natural gas pipelines that will create an energy and trade corridor to China’s landlocked south west; the Kaladan multi-modal project that will create a transportation corridor between the Indian Ocean and India’s eastern seaboard and its landlocked north east; and the Dawei Development Project which, if completed according to plan, would include a large industrial estate and modern deep-sea port in the south, with road and rail links for transhipment of goods to Thailand and on to Vietnam, cutting several days off the sea route through the Straits of Malacca.

To be able to face current and future challenges, it is necessary to increase the physical, human and institutional infrastructure; increase agricultural productivity and expand the export capacity of communities and countries; mainstream climate change and land degradation issues into national budgets; involve non-traditional donors, in particular civil society organizations and the private sector, in poverty reduction strategies; promote regional integration, especially as far as the creation of the price mitigation mechanism is concerned; and strengthen the capacity of the State to respond to social demands.

Following further consultations with stakeholders in Iraq, the representative of UNIDO said that in principle, Iraq did not object to using hydrocarbon as the replacing refrigerant, subject to ensuring that: the technology was technically feasible in terms of the availability of components and raw materials for such products; the final product price was comparable to HFC-134a products; safety considerations were fulfilled within the project, covering both manufacturing and servicing aspects; the performance of hydrocarbon-based products was similar to that of HFC-134a products, keeping in mind that the temperature in Baghdad could easily reach 50 degrees Celsius in the summertime; and information was provided on similar experience with projects funded by the Multilateral Fund for shifting commercial refrigeration to hydrocarbon technology.

Some representatives stressed the need to promote regional cooperative mechanisms and resource-sharing arrangements for disaster risk reduction and climate change risk reduction, including those involving information, communications and space technologies, to improve different types of hazard identification and preparedness planning as well as partnerships and collaboration with regional and subregional organizations.

In the lead up to COP15, the Maldives called for: the Copenhagen agreement to ensure that the most immediate and urgent adaptation needs of vulnerable nations are funded through a mechanism that is adequate, easily accessible and flexible; and the Copenhagen agreement to help reduce concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere to no more than 350 parts per million; implying the need for a 40% global greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2020 from 1990 levels and an 80% emissions reduction by 2050.

These databases, including the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa geospatial database, the African Climate Policy Centre’s climate change activities database and its agricultural commodity value-chain database and interface, form the core of the African Regional Spatial Data Infrastructure, with dedicated online applications and streamlined electronic delivery of products and services for targeted sectors including agriculture, climate change, carbon sequestration, water resources management and natural disasters and other regional challenges.

They considered that the Committee on Food Labelling should carefully examine the need for labelling of all functional classes listed in the Guidelines, such as carriers and packing gases, and that the understandability of the terms used to describe the class titles for labelling purposes should be discussed.

This is due to the trade winds that blow east-west across the Atlantic to the American continent and the warm currents flowing from the Equator to the Norwegian Sea, where the angle of the Norwegian coastline and the open path to the Arctic Ocean guides the temperate air and waters to more northerly latitudes.