Dagupan Mayor to speak at UN New York

 Mayor Belen T. Fernandez left for the United States at the invitation of the

 United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and 

the Law of the Sea to serve as one of the panelists in its 17th meeting at 

the United Nations Headquarters in New York on June 13-17.

OFF TO U.N. A fisherman in Masinloc, Zambales tells his horrifying experiences
with the Chinese Coast Guard at Scarborough Shoal to Dagupan City Mayor Belen
 T. Fernandez (extreme right) and foreign and local media men. Mayor Fernandez
 would grace the United Nations in New York middle of this month as resource
 speaker on environment of the United Nations Conventionon on  the Law of 
the Sea  (UNCLOS). MORTZ C. ORTIGOZA

The meeting will focus on two segments: the environmental, social and economic dimensions of marine debris, plastics and microplastics and progress made in preventing, reducing and controlling pollution from marine debris, plastics and microplastics; and challenges, lessons learned, best practices and way forward to prevent, reduce and control pollution from marine debris, plastics and microplastics.

Mayor Fernandez will discuss in her presentation under the panel segment the topic entitled: “Challenges, lessons learned, best practices and way forward to prevent, reduce and control pollution from marine debris, plastics and microplastics".

She was invited as one of the panelists in that meeting based on her expertise and experience and for her to provide information on the importance of local government units' ownership of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, particularly Goal 14 on oceans”.

Last year, she also spoke during a world meeting sponsored by World Ocean Conservancy in Chile, attended among others by Prince Albert of Monaco and U.S. State Secretary John Kerry.
In the UN meeting, speakers will be asked to keep their presentations to a maximum of 10 minutes. They will also be required to be available to respond to questions emanating from the floor during the Q&A session.

Accordingly, financial assistance may be available for panelists from developing countries through the Voluntary Trust Fund for the purpose of assisting developing countries, in particular least developed countries, small island developing states and landlocked developing states, in attending meetings of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea. (CIO News)