Cuba

LOCATED IN THE Caribbean, the Republic of Cuba has a land area of 42,803 sq. mi. (110,861 sq. km.), with a population of 11,382,820 (2006 est.), and a population density of 102 people per sq. mi. (264 people per sq. km.). Traditionally, the Cuban economy has been closely tied to the tobacco and sugar industries (the latter still accounts for nearly half of the country's exports).

A total of 24 percent of Cuba is arable land, with a further 27 percent of the country devoted to meadows and pasture. Approximately 94.6 percent of electricity production comes from fossil fuels, mostly petrol sourced from Venezuela. Hydropower is responsible for only 0.4 percent of all electricity. Although there is low automobile use in Cuba, many of the automobiles in the country are older models with heavy fuel consumption, and many still use lead-based gasoline.

For this reason, the vast majority of the carbon dioxide emissions from Cuba (96 percent) are from the use of liquid fuels, while most of the remainder come from the manufacture of cement. By sector, electricity and heat production account for 39 percent of carbon dioxide emissions, with manufacturing and construction making up nearly 40 percent of the emissions, and transport only 7 percent, with residential use some 3 percent. About 24 percent of the country is forested, with much mahogany used for export, and cedar turned into cigar boxes.

Global warming and climate change have had the effect of raising the temperature of the waters in the Caribbean, and it seems likely that this trend will continue, along with higher average temperatures. These higher water temperatures are already having a detrimental effect on the fish in the Caribbean Sea, affecting the local fishing industry, which is the third most important industry in the country, after sugar and nickel.

The Cuban government ratified the Vienna Convention in 1992, and took part in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in Rio de Janeiro in May 1992. It signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change on March 15, 1999, and ratified it on April 30, 2002, with it taking effect on February 16, 2005.

Rising water temperatures in the Caribbean Sea are affecting Cuba's fishing industry—its third most important industry.