Gorbachev launches ‘Peace with Water’ initiative

The former Soviet leader launched a high-profile water initiative in the European Parliament on February 12, calling for water issues to be included in UN negotiations over a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December.

Launching a Memorandum for a World Water Protocol in the European Parliament in Brussels, Mikhail Gorbachev said the inclusion of water in global climate talks should be a high priority.

“Water is without no doubt a political problem, and a crisis of development that is unsustainable. It is part of a global political crisis,” Gorbachev said. Meanwhile, the current global economic crisis may even act as a catalyst for a new order to help overcome “our old unsustainable model of development,” he said.

Gorbachev called for clear political leadership on water, demanding that all nations help the United Nations to ”enshrine the right to water as the most important human right”.

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Source: EurActiv