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UN stern in call for climate change deal
By Huang Xiangyang and Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-09-23 07:20 NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday called on world leaders to stop talking and start taking action to seize the last opportunity to reach a deal on climate change.
He called on leaders of industrialized countries to take the first step forward. "If you do so, others will take measures of their own," he said. "All countries must do more now." Underscoring the urgency of tackling climate change, Ban said that mankind will soon reach a critical threshold with consequences that cannot be reversed. Scientists have warned that the world has less than 10 years to halt the global rise in greenhouse emissions to avoid worst-case scenarios, which Ban said are becoming "ever more likely". He cited his recent trip to the Arctic and said the pace of change was alarming. He said the Arctic could be ice-free by 2030. "The consequence will be felt by people in every continent," he warned. He rejected the claim by some people that tackling climate change is too expensive. "They are wrong. The opposite is true. We will pay an unacceptable price if we do not act now," Ban said. Despite increasing levels of global warming and its harmful consequences, Ban said that the negotiations on climate change are proceeding "too slowly" and he called on all leaders to accelerate the pace of negotiations. "The glaciers are melting faster than human progress to protect them." He warned that a failure to reach a deal in Copenhagen will be "morally inexcusable, economically shortsighted and politically unwise." "Our fates are intertwined. Now it is the moment to act in our common cause," he said. He said the fate of future generations will depend on what action the leaders of the world will take today. "I count on you," he said. Obama calls on leaders US President Barack Obama also spoke at yesterday's summit, echoing calls for collective action to combat global warming. "The time we reverse the trend is running up," said Obama. He said the US is engaging more allies because climate change cannot be tackled by a single country. "There is no other way until all the emitters in the world work together," said Obama, adding that the US is moving toward emission cut targets by 2020 and 2050. He called on world leaders to try to reach a deal in the upcoming UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. "We must see Copenhagen as a global milestone to fight against climate change," he said. "This is a new day. This is a new era. And the US is acting by investing in the biggest projects in renewable energy in US history." Scary prospects Dr Rajendra K Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, urged all global leaders to take climate change seriously. He said governments have already approved the UN report from scientists in 2000, which concluded that global warming is real and the density and frequency of droughts, floods, famine and other disasters have already increased during the past decades due to rising temperatures. Pachauri said scientists have laid out unequivocal evidence of climate change, and warned how extreme precipitation events, heat waves and other natural catastrophes will become more frequent, endangering vast swaths of humanity if no action is taken now. "We stand to lose 20-30 percent of species if warming (continues)," he said. French President Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday proposed that heads of state from major economies meet in November to discuss the climate change agenda ahead of December's climate summit in Copenhagen. "Considering how complex this negotiation is, a new summit before Copenhagen is needed," Sarkozy told the UN climate meeting. Sarkozy said the proposed November meeting would allow the world's biggest emitters "to make clearer commitments to ensure Copenhagen's success." |
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