Times of India , Thursday, December 13, 2007

Correspondent : Staff Reporter

NUSA DUA (INDONESIA): Talks on halting the juggernaut of climate change swung into top gear in Indonesia on Wednesday with a blunt warning from UN chief Ban Ki-moon that the world was counting on a breakthrough. Amid beefed-up security at the conference venue following devastating twin bombings in Algiers, representatives from more than 180 countries faced what sources described as deadlock on several key issues. Meeting on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, environment ministers have until Friday to agree a framework for tackling global warming past 2012, when pledges under the Kyoto Protocol expire. "If we leave Bali without such a breakthrough, we will not only have failed our leaders but also those who look to us to find solutions, namely the peoples of this world," Ban said. "This is the moral challenge of our generation. Not only are the eyes of the world upon us. More important, succeeding generations depend on us. We cannot rob them of their future." Ban urged ministers to set a deadline of the end of 2009 for wrapping up a deal that curbed greenhouse-gas emissions and helped those who are least to blame for global warming yet most at risk. But he admitted that the Bali talks would not meet the expectations of those clamouring for immediate targeted commitments to slash carbon pollution. In a video message from Oslo, where he received the Nobel peace prize on behalf of the UN's top climate change panel, Rajendra Pachauri spelt out key points on global warming. The unbridled burning of fossil fuels is stoking a greenhouse effect that is warming Earth's surface with potentially calamitous consequences, he said.

SOURCE : Times of India, Thursday, 13 December 2007