EfD fellow leads Costa Rican negotiating team at COP15

Research Fellow Alvaro Umaña is the Head and Political Coordinator of the Costa Rican Negotiating Team at Copenhagen.

Dr. Alvaro Umaña, Research Fellow at
EfD Central America, was designated as Head and Political Coordinator of the Costa
Rican Negotiating Team for the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference
in Copenhagen (COP15), Denmark, 7-18 December 18, 2009.

In his own words yesterday, December
1st, after the presentation of the Negotiating Team to press, he
said:

“As we approach the Climate Change Summit we have
encountered many obstacles on the road but we remain optimistic that a global
legally binding agreement will be achieved in Copenhagen or shortly thereafter.
Although the U.S Senate has not yet approved the climate change law, President
Obama will attend the Summit and offer specific reduction targets. Brazil,
China, Indonesia, India has also promised voluntary emission reductions.  All these are positive signals that give us hope
that we will finally have global climate regime that will include forestry and
land use (REDD+ agenda, an upgraded version of REDD including the ability of
forests to store carbon) where tropical developing countries can deliver large
carbon emission reductions at reasonable costs”.

As Costa Rica’s first minister of
energy and environment from 1986 to 1990, during President Oscar Arias’ first
term of office, Alvaro Umaña is internationally recognized for his
groundbreaking contributions to conservation.

Alvaro is well recognized as a leader
in formulation of policy and in environmental economics. His main activities at
the EfD Center in Central America (EfD-CA) are to promote the efforts of
EfD-CA, especially for policy makers, and making alliances with international
institutions.

To read more about Alvaro Umaña’s
work you can click here.

Countries
News | 4 December 2009