Nairobi, Nov 10: The climate change conference in
session here has pledged to plant over a billion trees across
the world.
The initiative, launched yesterday by Kenya''s Nobel
laureate Wangari Maathai, seeks to reverse the effects of
climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions.
The European Union, under pressure from developing
countries, pledged a total of 18 million USD to reduce the
effects of climate change in the next four years.
Unchecked deforestation has been squarely blamed for
the erratic rainfall, persistent droughts and raging floods.
Maathai joined the over 6,000 delegates attending the
climate conference in launching the billion-tree planting
campaign to reverse the effects of climate change.
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Director
Achim Steiner said tree planting was the only way to sustain
environmental conservation.
According to Maathai, the challenge lies in ensuring
that the over 80,000 species of indigenous trees are saved
from extinction.
The developed countries have come under intense
criticism for not doing enough to avert the effects of green
house gas emissions from their industries.
The delegates also expressed optimism that the newly
elected Senate in the United States will push the nation to
ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Bureau Report
