UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 11: UN Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-moon has told delegates at the summit in Bali that the world is counting on a breakthrough at the conference, and he called the fight against global warming “the moral challenge of our generation.”
Guidelines on greenhouse gas emissions cuts opposed by the USA may be “too ambitious” to include in a final statement from the climate conference in Bali, the UN chief said today.
Drafts of the conference statement have included a call for industrialised countries to consider reducing emissions blamed for global warming by between 25 per cent and 40 per cent by 2020.
Mr Ban, however, said such goals might have to wait for subsequent negotiations when asked about steadfast opposition by the USA, though at some point targets for emissions cuts would be necessary.
In a speech issued in New York at the opening of the Conference's high-level segment today, he said: “What the world expects from Bali from all of you is an agreement to launch negotiations towards a comprehensive climate change agreement.”
Mr Ban underscored the importance of creating a road map to tackle climate change and a timeline to produce a new agreement by 2009 so that it can enter into force after the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
He said, that: “Let us turn the climate crisis into a climate compact.” Mr Ban informed the delegates that they have been given a “clear charge” by the world to produce a breakthrough.
“Not only are the eyes of the world upon us more important, succeeding generations depends on us. We cannot rob our children of their future,” Mr Ban added.
Rudd
Australian Prime Minister Mr Kevin Rudd today formally handed the official document ratifying the Kyoto Protocol to United Nations Secretary-General Mr Ban Ki-Moon. Mr Rudd met Mr Ban ahead of the high-level segment of the UN climate change conference on the Indonesian island of Bali this morning, according to latest media reports here.