By IANS
Bali : The Bali International Convention Centre (BICC) where the UN climate change summit opened Monday is a beautiful mix of traditional architecture and modern facilities – with a sloping red tile roof covering a huge fountain area and auditoriums and seminar rooms all around. The trouble is it itself is at risk from climate change.
BICC is part of the beachside Westin Resort that faces inundation unless the thousands of delegates gathered here from around the world take urgent action to combat global warming. With sea levels rising due to climate change, the hundreds of beachside resorts that fuel the Bali economy face the same uncertainty.
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Mangroves on way to UN summit
Much of the road from Bali’s airport to the UN climate change summit venue is over lagoons that have recently seen major mangrove plantations in an effort to protect the area from storm surges.
After the December 2004 tsunami devastated other parts of Indonesia – apart from all countries around the Indian Ocean – it was realised that mangroves can contain much of the sea surge that accompanies a tsunami or the kind of cyclone that devastated southern Bangladesh last month.
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Dressing to combat climate change
In a major departure from the UN dress code, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) had put out a notice on its website that participants at the Bali summit should do away with jackets and ties so that the air-conditioning could be set at a higher level and the conference could do its bit to combat climate change. Except at the opening session.
As it happened, about a third of the men present at the imposing main hall of the Bali International Convention Centre (BICC) were in shirtsleeves even during the opening session while the women preferred tropical dresses.
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Indonesia combats global warming caused by Bali summit
Over 10,000 delegates – including 335 NGOs, 69 intergovernmental bodies and 1,300 journalists – have converged on Bali for the climate change summit. In the process, their air travel alone is emitting the equivalent of 50,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide – the main greenhouse gas that leads to global warming – into the atmosphere.
Indonesia has vowed to offset this by planting trees on 4,500 hectares in the coming months, Rachmat Witeolar, the country’s environment minister and the new president of UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said Monday.