10 September 2009
The Need for Action on Climate Change Is Urgent
U.N. secretary general calls on world to make changes now
Geneva — On September 3, the day before the final session at the World Climate Conference-3 in Geneva, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon spoke urgently to delegates from 165 countries and to members of the press. He had just returned from the Arctic, where he’d sailed for nine hours from the world’s northernmost settlement to reach the polar ice rim.
“Our foot is stuck on the gas pedal. We have to pull it off,” he said.
He had gone to the Arctic to see for himself the visible impacts of climate change and, he said, “to inject much-needed urgency into the climate-change debate. I went to the Arctic to raise again political leadership among the leaders of the world. I will continue to speak out on this issue until we seal a deal. A deal that will be comprehensive, balanced and equitable and fair for the future of human beings.”
The deal he mentioned is a new climate change agreement that he and many others around the world hope will be forged in Copenhagen, Denmark, December 7–18 at the 15th meeting of the parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The U.N. Seal the Deal campaign seeks a focus in Copenhagen on five issues:
• Individual targets industrialized countries will set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Actions developing countries will take to limit the growth of their emissions.
• Finances that will be made available to developing countries unable to act without support.
• An efficient institutional mechanism for disbursing funds and an equitable, accountable, governance structure.
• A framework that will bolster the climate resilience of vulnerable countries and protect lives and livelihoods.
“The Copenhagen climate change conference is less than three months away,” he said. “Indeed, it is closer than that. We have only 15 negotiating days left. We are very much pressured by this time. We have to resolve some of the most complex issues within 15 days.”
To mobilize world leaders, the United Nations is holding a day-long summit for heads of state on climate change September 22 at U.N. headquarters in New York called the United Nations Leadership Forum on Climate Change.
In Geneva, Daniel Reifsnyder, deputy assistant secretary for environment and sustainable development at the U.S. State Department, said President Obama plans to take part in the New York meeting.
The summit aims to advance the negotiations for Copenhagen but is not a negotiating session, according to the summit Web site. “It provides a forum where leaders can discuss fundamental issues, find common ground and provide guidance to their negotiators,” the site said.
And it will not be a traditional U.N. meeting, where heads of state make live opening statements as the summit begins. Instead, they will be able to send in video statements that will be available at the U.N. headquarters and on YouTube beginning September 22.
This article was originally published on the America.gov blog Adaptation! Please read related entries and join the conversation.
