KIGALI, Nov. 19 (Xinhua) -- Climate change is a major global threat that needs strong and concerted efforts to tackle, legislators said here Tuesday at a joint parliamentary assembly of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) and the European Union (EU).
"World leaders, policy-makers and climate change experts should go beyond rhetoric talk on climate change mitigation measures and come up with strong and concrete actions to tackle climate change," said Carlos Zorrinho, co-president of the ACP-EU joint parliamentary assembly, at the formal opening of the session.
The assembly, held on Nov. 17-21, focuses on wide-ranging topics, such as climate change, food security, migration and sustainable growth.
"Climate change often causes conflicts, migrations and natural disasters destroying lives and property. It is our duty as ACP-EU to work together towards combating disastrous effects of climate change," said Zorrinho, a member of the European Parliament.
Zorrinho said the world should strengthen efforts to avoid the worst impacts of the climate change in the near future.
"There is a need to come up with aggressive policies to fight climate change. As parliamentarians we are going to raise our voice and push world leaders to continue to influence global actions on climate change mitigation measures," said Ibrahima Memounatou, a member of the Parliament of Togo.
To push a climate action, much stronger engagement and leadership are also needed, said Memounatou.
Donatille Mukabalisa, speaker of Chamber of Deputies of Rwanda, said the increase of global temperature indicates that climate change is real and that needs concerted efforts to mitigate it.
"Climate change is affecting all regions of the world, but Africa is more vulnerable to climate change's disastrous effects than others," Mukabalisa said.
Rwanda's Senate President Augustin Iyamuremye called on the participants to reflect deeply on regional and global issues, and to focus their political will and efforts on an ambitious partnership to deal with climate change.
