Environmental Issues under Discussion in Havana

Cuban Environment, Science and Technology Minister Elba Rosa Perez opened the 10th International Convention on the Environment and Development on Monday.

Some 1200 delegates are attending the forum at Havana’s Conventions Center to debate the most pressing problems in the areas of environment and development at regional, local and global levels.

The minister said that Cuba is committed to global efforts to achieve a better world while actions are underway to protect the national environment and natural resources to achieve a prosperous and sustainable socialist system as part of the economic and social policy of the country.

Cuba is an archipelago sensitive to extreme natural phenomena, rural fires, quakes, landslides and other technological and sanitary threats, said the minister and added that climate change has led to temperature increase, lower rainfall levels, salinity growth, loss of coastal areas, less agricultural yield and the loss of biodiversity.

Also included is the impact on coastal human settlements while transmissible diseases increase with consequences on the economy and the society, she said.

In this scenario, the Cuban government encourages the creation of scientific actions and research aimed at learning from the impact of climate change in the future and there is a Climate Change Program that includes studies on the danger, vulnerability and disaster risk, with different strategies.

Cuba also boosts the use of renewable energy sources, and makes efforts to increase forest areas, among many other environment-related actions, the minister explained.