Cuba and France sign agreement to monitor quality of air

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 4 (acn) Cuban and French institutions signed on Tuesday a cooperation agreement to continue to increase the island´s capacity to monitor air quality, informed Prensa Latina News Agency.

Cuba´s Meteorology Institute of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment signed a letter of intention with the French Environment S.A. Company that will be responsible with the construction and production of the equipment linked with atmospheric contamination.

The instrument will begin cooperation which will ease the agreement in locating one of the equipment in Cuba for an experimental phase said Celso Pazos, general director of the institute.

Meanwhile, technical assistance will be carried out to the Cuban institution to see island´s assimilation to the technology, he added

Pazos explained that it's the beginning of the experimental stage in which the company offers the equipment and the technical counseling and Cuba contributes with the capacities installed in the Institution and the national meteorological service in the issues of atmospheric contamination.

An academic exercise will be done between both parts with the objective of analyzing the feasibility of later increasing the equipment in Cuba to monitor air quality, said the official during a forum held parallel to the official visit of Cuban President Raul Castro to France.

According to Pazos the importance of the agreement is related with the Cuban government's political will to protect the environment.

One of the main environmental problems in the country has always been tied to atmospheric contamination above all the large cities or the industrialized areas, he said.

He also stressed that although Cuba's contribution to global warming is low the island helps in the reduction of emissions and controls contamination.

For this, he said, it is useful to measure. This agreement is an important step because it helps to increase the island's capacity in measuring the quality of air and take steps in favor of reducing contamination.

This is important in today's world where climate change continues to be a crisis and a tendency in global warming, said the Cuban specialist.