Climate Change Facts and News 2014: Lima, Peru Hosts United Nations Conference to Fight Greenhouse Gas Pollution, Global Warming
In a Tuesday United Nations conference in Peru, organizers will shoot hard for the first time ever to neutralize all the greenhouse gas pollution generated by their own event.
The meeting in Lima is expected to create the biggest carbon footprint of any U.N. climate meeting measured to date, The Associated Press reports.
According to Jorge Alvarez, project coordinator for the U.N. Development Program, this year's gathering will put a strain on global warming that is about 1 1/2 times more than usual.
A major reason for this is that the venue for the conference had to be constructed. For the 13 days of negotiations, 11 football fields of temporary structures had to be raised, concrete was laid, plumbing was installed and some of the necessary components were even flown in from as far away as France and Brazil.
Eschewing solar panels because of Lima’s infamously unreliable sun, the talks are having to rely exclusively on diesel generators for electricity.
Alvarez itemized the carbon footprint as about 20 percent due to construction, and about 30 percent due to the jet fuel burned by the 11,000 delegates and observers who flew in for the event.
Local transportation such as buses will, according to Alvarez, make up about 15-20 percent of the expenditure, while the rest of the carbon footprint will be made up of electricity, solid waste treatment, water, paper, food, disposable plates and cups and having to keep 40,000 police on high alert for nearly two weeks.
Peru is not at all known as an environmentally-minded nation. Despite Lima being considered one of the least friendly cities for cyclists, Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal asked for a bicycle parking lot, which he was granted. So far, however, only about 40 people use it on a daily basis, and most of the U.N. delegates use automobiles to reach an event that is less than six miles from their hotels.
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!