14 June 2007

Mr. First Deputy Minister of Environment,

Distinguished participants,

It gives me great pleasure to participate in today's event that is dedicated to a subject of high importance and relevance both to Belarus and to the international community.

Global climate change and related impacts have been dominating the international agenda over the recent years. There is a growing understanding that in the long-term this is the single most important challenge faced by the global community. At a number of high-level international fora, including last year's Conference of Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the past two G-8 summits, the issue has been given top priority.

According to the Fourth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global average sea level – all testify to the fact that "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal".

The IPCC report establishes solid linkages between global warming and human-induced increases in global atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide and methane, which are due primarily to fossil fuel use and land-use change.

All the profound impacts of the changing climate – on natural ecosystems and human environment – are yet to be fully studied and understood, but the currently available scientific data forecast a rather worrisome picture with global average temperatures and sea level rising to alarming values within the next 100 years, unless drastic steps are taken in the short- to medium-term in order to cut down on the emissions of greenhouse gases.
The Kyoto protocol to the UNFCCC has been conceived with the understanding that concerted international efforts were needed in order to curb climate change and minimize its devastating impacts that are affecting developing countries the most.

Through its innovative financing mechanisms, Kyoto protocol provides a market-based framework for the climate change mitigation efforts that generate much-needed investment for the benefiting developing countries, while providing the industrialized nations with a mechanism to meet their emission reduction targets.

It is highly encouraging to see that, since ratification of Kyoto protocol at the end of 2005, Belarus has been actively pushing forward with establishing the necessary national regulatory and institutional framework in support of the protocol.

UNDP is happy to be able provide its expertise and resources to the government of Belarus, to enhance its national efforts in establishing the requisite compliance mechanisms for Kyoto protocol, so that Belarus could fully benefit from the joint implementation and emissions trading mechanisms, as well as set up its "green investment scheme".

The rapid development of the carbon market over the past several years offers significant opportunities for emission reduction projects. However, on the global scale the current situation in the carbon market is characterized by limited geographical and technological diversity of emission reduction projects, with few sustainable development dividends.

Realizing the need to level-out the playing field for all developing countries to maximize sustainable development benefits from Kyoto projects, UNDP has recently partnered with banking and insurance giant Fortis to launch an innovative carbon financing mechanism – MDG Carbon Facility.

A recent Poverty-Environment Partnership report estimates that US $60-90 billion per year will be needed to address the environmental issues that contribute to poverty in developing nations; the market in emission reduction credits carries enormous potential for bringing essential new investment to tackle these issues.

The launch of MDG Carbon Facility, announced June 5, 2007, meaningfully coincided with the Word Environment Day 2007 that had an overarching theme “Melting Ice: A Hot Topic!”. In his message on World Environment Day the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon underscored that “society’s dependence on fossil fuels is jeopardizing social and economic progress and our future security. Fortunately, there are many policy and technological options available to avert the impending crisis, but we need increased political will to use them.”

In this regard, I believe our joint project with the Ministry of Environment on capacity building for Kyoto protocol, as well as other ongoing and planned initiatives by UN-system organizations will enable Belarus to effectively tap into and benefit from the enormous opportunities offered by global carbon market, while at the same time providing its contribution to international mitigation efforts to "avert the impending crisis".

I believe that today’s forum will provide a good opportunity to present progress by Belarus in the Kyoto protocol, share international best-practices and experiences, and discuss specific project ideas.

I wish you productive work.

Thank you.

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