TIRANA, Dec. 5 – Albania’s President Ilir Meta attended the 24th Global UN Climate Conference, COP24, Leaders Summit in Katowice, Poland, among numerous other heads of state and government as an opportunity to send a strong message on how important it is to work out the implementing provisions to the Paris Agreement.
The summit was part of the bigger conference which will be taking place from Dec. 3 to Dec. 14 for the third time in Poland and which will be attended by approximately 30,000 guests from 195 countries.
Albania, too, endorsed the Solidarity and Just Transition Silence Declaration, announced by President of Poland Andrzej Duda – a confirmation that in order for the activities aimed at creating low-carbon economy to be successful, social approval for changes is crucial.
“Many thanks to President of Poland Andrzej Duda and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres for their leadership and commitment,” Meta tweeted in his official account.
This year’s conference theme is “Changing Together,” a title fitting to the choice of the hosting city; 30 years ago, factory smokestacks were an integral part of Katowice, making the city’s landscape today one of the symbols of the effectiveness of the Polish strategy of economic and social transformation.
During the summit, Meta also posted a picture of him and Duda and welcomed him to visit Albania next year.
“Relations with Poland are experiencing a steady and promising growth not only in the field of tourism. President Andrzej Duda official visit next year in Tirana is very welcomed,” Meta wrote.
The Polish COP24 Presidency plans to focus on three key elements: technology, people and nature and will seek to adopt ministerial declarations which it has encouraged all Parties to the Convention to join.
Poland is not a stranger to the goals it is trying to attain – At the end of the 1980s, the climate situation in Poland was catastrophic compared to countries outside the Soviet zone of influence.
Thanks to economic growth, it also managed to re-industrialize and adapt the country to
increasingly strict ecological standards in the European Union, and even surpass them.
Albania is State Party to all the three Rio Conventions, on climate change, desertification and biodiversity. In addition, Albania is a party to a number of environmental conventions.
However, only 36% of the territory of Albania is forested. The decline in forest area is due to clearance for agriculture, overgrazing, and woodcutting for fuel and building. More than 60% of forest and pasture lands are under municipal or commune management.
Albania is one of the most vulnerable countries in the region to a changing climate and it is estimated that summer rainfalls will decline by about ten percent by 2020 and 20 percent by 2050. It also ranks as one of the countries with the highest economic risk in the world from multiple hazards, with 86 percent of its territory prone to two or more disasters.
Legislative gaps remain and Albania does not yet have a comprehensive and countrywide disaster risk management strategy. In addition, organisational and technical capacities at national and LGU levels to anticipate and manage for disaster risks, and to respond effectively to emergencies are extremely low.
