“My Wish for Cancun”

ABDULMALEK SULAIMAN M. AL-MUALEMI is ambassador of the Republic of Yemen to China.

IT can be said with certainty that scientific and technological advancements have made a significant impact on Earth’s climate and are in fact the main cause of climate change.

Developed countries should bear the burden of battling climate change because they have generated this unbearable disaster. As for the UN and NGOs, we’ve noticed that many international and regional meetings convened to address nature’s backlash simply produce responses too feeble to counter the disasters we are enduring today; storms, floods and earthquakes plague millions of people, and desertification nibbles away at arable land. I heard recently that creeping disasters such as glacier melt and the desertification of Africa, and sudden tragedies like the flood in Pakistan and hurricanes in the U.S., are beginning to strike every corner of the world.

Previous conferences have reflected the wishes of ordinary people as well as those of environmental organizations. I hope the round of talks in November 2010 will continue to tackle important issues instead of musing over past achievements. Meanwhile, I hope the Arab countries see fit to conduct substantial environmental cooperation and work out related plans among themselves. On that note, environmental organizations of the League of Arab States and China should also coordinate exchanges in fields like environmental legislation, human resources training, popularization of relevant technology and products, waste management, natural disaster warning and recovery systems. Arab nations and China would be prudent to work beside relevant international and regional organizations on climate change adaptation, and applied research on advanced technologies that will help us fend off, and ultimately prevent, climate disasters.

The Republic of Yemen and China have pooled their resources in certain fields, and I believe our two countries can carry forward these joint endeavors. Yemen has been represented in Beijing many times at climate change forums and conferences. The chairman of the Yemen environmental organization has attended two climate change symposiums and one desertification seminar. I hope these cooperative arrangements will continue. I look forward to learning from Chinese experience and, in the future, signing and implementing meaningful agreements.

My wish for the Cancun Conference is, of course, for it to attain its expected goals and achieve trail-blazing results. Yemen is satisfied with efforts made by China, India, Brazil and South Africa; they have all played important roles at the New Delhi Conference. My hopes for the Cancun Conference is that all these concerns will move forward.