2010-11-19 12:51

CARACAS - Venezuela expects participating countries to reach an effective agreement to reduce negative impacts of climate change at the upcoming UN climate change conference in Cancun, Mexico, a senior Venezuelan climate official said on Friday.

In an interview with Xinhua, Caludia Salermo, who will be Venezuela's representative to the Cancun conference, said, "We are ready to fight this bitter battle to the end."

The conference, slated from November 29 to December 10, will gather leaders or their representatives from some 180 countries to discuss the issues of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.

Venezuela "seeks an agreement involving the 192 member countries of the UN and a way to solve the environmental catastrophe that we are suffering," Salermo said.

She said Venezuela's position was shared by all countries of the Bolivarian Alliance of the Americas (ALBA), like what happened at the 2009 Copenhagen climate conference.

"We have urged developed countries, which call themselves leaders of the world, to really take a more constructive leadership," Salermo said.

Salermo said developed countries should not "condition their positions, because otherwise they will lead us to an environmental catastrophe and debacle."

She said the Kyoto Protocol regulated the commitments by all developed countries on reducing carbon dioxide emissions, urging US President Barack Obama to show more sincerity in fulfilling the commitments at the Cancun conference.

Salermo said one of the biggest challenges at the Cancun conference was whether developed countries had a firm political will to turn the previous negotiation texts into "concrete actions."

"We aren't going to give up until we have on the table a document truly useful to integrally assist and solve the problems we are facing," Salermo said.