Launching event on Climate Change and Human Security.

Presentation of HSN Chair Priorities and Work Plan Activities for the General Public.

The launching event in Athens was organised by the Greek HSN Chairmanship in co-operation with UNEP/MAP. In the framework of this event a Poster exhibition (“Melting Ice - A hot topic?”), and a children paintings’ exhibition on Climate Change were also presented.

In her message, the Foreign Affairs Minister Ms Dora Bakoyannis underscored that climate change constitutes a critical threat against human security and that international co-operation is the most efficient means to alleviate human suffering. Referring to the Bali conference on Climate Change, she expressed the hope that it can mark the beginning of a global negotiation with a view to achieve a common denominator of environmental awareness and policy making in the “post Kyoto” era. 

She described the Greek HSN Chairmanship as a mutual endeavour “to study systematically and to present in co-operation with Human Security Network partners and other established international organisations, institutions and non-governmental organisations, the impacts of climate change on the human security of vulnerable groups and to facilitate a serious turn of international and European development contribution towards combating these impacts.” (To see the full message, please click here).

During the event, presentations were made by UNEP/MAP Coordinator Mr. Paul Mifsud and the head of the UNDP Office in Athens, Mr. Giuseppe Belsito.  

According to UNEP / MAP, the wider region of the Mediterranean is one of the high risk areas as far as climate change is concerned.

Mr. Belsito presented comparative data of climate change’s impact on the developing and the developed  world, indicating that one out of 19 persons in the developing world is affected by climate change, while in the countries of OECD the proportion is one out of 1500 (for further info please click here). Mr. Belsito’s presentation and data were based on latest UNDP Human Development Report 2007/2008 “Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world”.

Deputy Minister Mr. Petros Doukas presented the priorities and the plan of action of Greek HSN Chairmanship with special reference on the three policy papers, one on each of the three vulnerable population groups -women, children, persons fleeing their homes, as well as one general policy paper on development aid and the adaptation to climate change in developing countries in co-operation with Dr. Saleemul Huq, from the International Institute for Environment and Development .