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Kinshasa (AFP) Dec 2, 2010 Parliamentarians from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of nations on Thursday kicked off wide-ranging talks with their European Union counterparts in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Global warming, mortality in childbirth and conflict in central Africa were all on the agenda, according to organisers. "The majority of member states of the paritary ACP-EU parliamentary assembly are among those that make the lowest contributions to greenhouse gases" causing global warming, DR Congo President Joseph Kabila said in opening remarks. "The asymetric nature of the situation in terms of responsibility for the warning of the planet and exposure to its consequences is morally unacceptable, politically and economically unsupportable," Kabila told some 450 lawmakers from 110 countries. "It calls for courageous and responsible decisions." The co-presidents of the ACP-EU assembly, the Zambian David Matongo and the Belgian Louis Michel both stressed the importance of the themes set down for debate, including climate change, insecurity in the Sahel, maternal mortality and the situations in DR Congo and central Africa. According to the assembly's economic development commission, transfers of technology with low rates of carbon emission from wealthy to the most vulnerable nations, particularly those in the ACP group, are "a key element of any international response" to help cope with climate change. Only 0.2 percent of European aid is currently invested in renewable energy. But Africa's potential in renewable energy is hugely under-exploited, with only seven percent of the hydraulic dam potential and one percent of geothermal energy currently being used, according to a report to be debated on Friday. The matter of maternal mortality will be raised by Burkinabe President Blaise Compaore, according to the organisers. Delegates will also give an international award, the Jean Rey prize, to the Congolese gynaecologist Denis Mukwege, founder of the Panzi hospital at Bukavu in the southwest Sud-Kivu province, a specialist in caring for women who have been the victim of multiple rapes.
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