EUR: World heading for climate 'abyss': UN chief
Fri Sep 4 04:49:40 EST 2009
Thu Sep 3 18:49:40 UTC 2009
GENEVA, Sept 3 AFP - The world is accelerating towards a climate catastrophe, UN chief Ban Ki-moon has warned, urging rapid progress in talks to cut emissions and tackle global warming.
"Our foot is stuck on the accelerator and we are heading towards an abyss," the UN Secretary General said in a speech to the World Climate Conference on Thursday.
Ban, who this week visited the Arctic to witness first hand the changes wrought by global warming, warned that many of the "more distant scenarios" predicted by scientists were "happening now."
"Scientists have been accused for years of scaremongering. But the real scaremongers are those who say we cannot afford climate action -- that it will hold back economic growth," he said.
"They are wrong. Climate change could spell widespread disaster," Ban warned.
The UN leader pinned his hopes of a breakthrough on a summit of world leaders in New York this month to discuss climate change.
Talks on extending the Kyoto protocol on emissions cuts in time for December's Copenhagen conference had been too limited and slow, he said.
"We have 15 negotiating days left until Copenhagen. We cannot afford limited progress. We need rapid progress," he added, criticising "inertia" towards climate change.
"In New York, (I) expect candid and constructive discussions. I expect serious bridge building. I expect strong outcomes," Ban told delegates and ministers from some 150 countries at the meeting in Geneva.
The UN chief warned that the price of failure in Copenhagen would be high "not just for future generations, but for this generation."
Ban has carried out several climate-related visits since he took the helm of the world body, including to Antarctica, to see advancing deserts in Chad and the diminishing Amazonian rainforest in Brazil.
Visibly sobered by his Arctic visit this week, he warned that rising sea levels, partly generated by melting ice in the polar region would threaten major cities and potentially up to 130 million people.
Climate change was also triggering a rush for natural resources in the Arctic as sea passages opened up, he warned.
"We are not just changing the environment, climate change is altering the geopolitical landscape," said Ban.
He urged action on the key areas of the Copenhagen negotiations that are riven by disagreements between rich, emerging and poor nations.
They include measures to adapt to climate change and "fast-track funding" to help the most vulnerable and developing countries.
While developed nations need to set "ambitious mid-term" emissions targets, Ban said developing countries also "need to act to slow the growth of their emissions."
In India, a government-backed report released on Thursday said the country's per capita greenhouse gas emissions were expected to nearly triple in the next two decades, while still remaining below the current global average.
India's per capita output is one of the lowest globally, but given its massive population it is one of the top polluters in the world.
It is also among countries that have long rejected binding carbon emission targets on the grounds that they would hinder economic growth and development.
The largely technical World Conference on Climate Change in Geneva was due later on Thursday to approve setting up a new global framework to share climate information and develop better long-term weather forecasting.
