Barbaro at Cop16, 'Latin America area of strong interest'

(ANSA) - BOGOTA, 28 OTT - "Latin America and the Caribbean constitute one of the largest reserves of biodiversity, oxygen and water on the planet, but they have known structural and systemic vulnerabilities and for this reason are an area of strong government interest," This was stated by the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security (Mase), Claudio Barbaro, participating in an event entitled 'Challenges and Opportunities for Italian Cooperation for Sustainable, Inclusive and Innovative Development' within the framework of the Cop16 on Biodiversity being held in Cali, Colombia.
    The undersecretary, accompanied by the Italian ambassador to Colombia, Giancarlo Maria Curcio, then recalled that 'eight memoranda of understanding on environmental cooperation in the field of sustainable development with countries in the region are in force,' specifying that '25 projects have been approved, the main topics of which are natural disaster prevention and management systems, access to drinking water through desalination plants, the promotion of renewable energy, and the protection of biodiversity and forests.
    "It is important to act to strengthen collaboration with the countries in the area through the promotion of synergetic actions and the progressive targeting of financial resources for regional development, in order to maximise the impact on the territory. This is why we also believe it is crucial to promote the launch of concrete collaborations between Mase and AICS, taking into account the Operational Agreement already in place between the parties, renewed in September 2023 for a duration of 3 years," he added.