UN-Truth

The three major news agencies have all covered the just-released “synthesis” report on climate change following the close of the IPCC meeting in Valencia, Spain today. The”synthesis” report will be discussed by some 10,0000 delegates who are expected to participate in the Bali meeting of the UN Conference on Climate Change starting in just over two weeks’ time.

While UNSG BAN has squeezed into the picture for reasons of image and legacy, it’s also certainly true that it would be worse if he ignored the issue. BAN has even embarked on his own eco-tourism to learn at first hand about the issue, which he seized upon just before taking office.

Reuters reported that BAN told delegates from more than 130 nations meeting in Valencia that ” ‘This report will be formally presented to the (U.N. Climate Change) Conference in Bali … Already, it has set the stage for a real breakthrough — an agreement to launch negotiations for a comprehensive climate change deal that all nations can embrace’, he said. Ban singled out the United States and China, the world’s top two emitters of greenhouse gases, which have no binding goals for curbs, as key countries in the process. He welcomed initiatives by both and urged them to do more. ‘I look forward to seeing the U.S. and China playing a more constructive role starting from the Bali conference’, Ban told a news conference afterwards … Ban said he had just been to see ice shelves breaking up in Antarctica and the melting Torres del Paine glaciers in Chile. He also visited the Amazon rainforest, which he said was being ’suffocated’ by global warming. ‘I come to you humbled after seeing some of the most precious treasures of our planet — treasures that are being threatened by humanity’s own hand’, he said. ‘These scenes are as frightening as a science fiction movie’, Ban said. ‘But they are even more terrifying, because they are real’ …

The Reuters report added that “Delegates said the U.S. delegation had been at the centre of some of the fiercest debate this week. Sources close to the discussions said the U.S. had tried to change or even remove a key section of the report which lists five main reasons for concern about the effects of warming … IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachauri told Reuters [that] ‘When you’re on strong scientific ground, you don’t yield any ground. We have to make sure that scientific truth is not suppressed’. The Kyoto treaty obliges 36 industrial nations to cut emissions by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. A new deal would aim to involve outsiders led by the United States and China” [who are not part of the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change] … The Reuters report on the wrap-up of the Valencia meeting is here.

AFP reported that “UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon seized on the report by the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to demand that politicians next month smash the deadlock on tackling the greenhouse-gas peril. The historic report ‘has set the stage for a real breakthrough’, said Ban, referring to a key conference running on the Indonesian island of Bali from December 3-14. ‘We cannot afford to leave Bali without such a breakthrough’, he said, as he described climate change as the ‘defining challenge of our age’ … During five days of negotiations, the United States repeatedly challenged passages emphasizing the level of threat posed by climate change, objecting that the wording was imprecise. The ’scientific definition’ of the dangers of climate change ‘is lacking, and so we are operating within the construct of, again, strong agreement among world leaders that urgent action is warranted’, said Jim Connaughton, chairman of White House’s Council on Environmental Quality. The Bali conference, taking place under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is tasked with setting a ‘roadmap’ of negotiations for intensifying cuts in carbon emissions beyond 2012, when current pledges run out under the Kyoto Protocol. Carbon pollution, emitted especially by the burning of oil, gas and coal, traps heat from the Sun, thus warming the Earth’s surface and inflicting changes to weather systems. Emissions are now spiralling, driven especially by carbon dioxide (CO2) spewed from coal-fired plants in fast-growing China and India, and Kyoto’s present commitments will not even dent the problem. Reducing emissions implies a cost in converting to cleaner energy or more efficient energy use. The cost of such a switch is a mighty political hurdle, even though experts say the cost of inaction will be many times higher just a few decades from now. The AFP report on the outcome in Valencia is here.

AP reported that “differences remain stark on how to control carbon emissions. While the European Union has taken the lead in enforcing the carbon emission targets outlined in Kyoto, the United States opted out of the 1997 accord. President Bush described it as flawed because major developing countries such as India and China, which are large carbon emitters, were excluded from any obligations. He also favors a voluntary agreement. Sharon Hays, a White House science official and head of the U.S. delegation, said the certainty of climate change was clearer now than when Bush rejected Kyoto”. The AP report on the happenings in Valencia is here.

Filed under: BAN Ki-Moon, Environment, United Nations