2009/12/19

KUALA LUMPUR: The United Kingdom and the United States have welcomed Malaysia’s voluntary national target to reduce carbon emissions, saying that it demonstrated the seriousness the government attached to climate change.

UK High Commissioner to Malaysia Boyd McCleary said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s willingness to put a figure on the table could only help the talks taking place in Copenhagen.

“The UK government agrees with Najib that moving towards a low-carbon economy is the only sensible path and offers significant opportunities for emerging economies.

“I hope Malaysia’s pledge and the offers made by developed and developing countries will help us achieve an ambitious global agreement in Copenhagen to prevent dangerous climate change,” McCleary said in a statement here yesterday.

Najib, who was the 11th speaker at the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2009 (COP15) in Copenhagen on Thursday, had announced that Malaysia would voluntarily slash carbon emissions by up to 40 per cent by 2020.

US ambassador to Malaysia James R. Keith said the US aimed to work with Malaysia and other developing nations to address the issues of climate change, including Malaysia’s pledge to cut down on carbon dioxide emission

In a statement issued through Bernama, Keith said the US was seeking an international accord that included emission reduction commitments from both developed and major developing countries, besides providing financial and technological assistance for poor countries and to find a way to independently verify the cuts all nations had made.

“We have seen Najib’s announcement in Copenhagen.

“Our aim is to work with Malaysia and other developing nations to achieve these ambitious objectives.

“A truly ambitious effort will necessarily include significant efforts by both the developed and the developing world; we are all in this together,” he said.

In Copenhagen, the Obama administration has committed to set up a US$100 billion (RM342 billiion) annual fund by 2020 to help poor countries cope with climate change.

This was assuming that an agreement could be reached on transparency in the tracking of emission cuts.

The US also announced US$1 billion in funding aimed at helping the most vulnerable developing countries to preserve their forests. — Bernama

(Source: New Strait Times)