PlanetArk 13 Dec 07;
Following are quotes from world leaders and senior officials at the opening of the high-level segment of Dec. 3-14 UN-led climate talks in Bali or at press briefings.
UN SECRETARY-GENERAL BAN KI-MOON:
"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 our children of their future."
"Our atmosphere can't tell the difference between emissions from an Asian factory, the exhaust from a North American SUV, or deforestation in South America or Africa," he said.
INDONESIAN PRESIDENT SUSILO BAMBANG YUDHOYONO
"We are embarking on the biggest project in human civilisation," he said. "We must ensure that the United States ... is part of such post-2012 arrangements."
AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER KEVIN RUDD
"For Australians, climate change is no longer a distant threat. Our rivers are dying, bushfires are more ferocious and more frequent and our natural wonders -- the Great Barrier Reef, Kakadu, our rainforests -- are now at risk."
PAULA DOBRIANSKY, HEAD OF THE US DELEGATION
"We want the world's largest economies, including the United States, to be part of a global arrangement. An approach in which only some are committed to acting cannot be environmentally effective."
"We don't want to be prejudging outcomes here," she said of US opposition to scientific guidelines for rich nations to cut emissions by 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. "We dont want to be predetermining what will come out of this process."
PRESIDENT OF THE MALDIVES, MAUMOON ABDUL GAYOOM
"We believe that climate change must be viewed not only as a danger to natural systems, but also as a direct threat to human survival and well-being. We are convinced that this negotiation process must not be viewed as a traditional series of governmental trade-offs, but as an urgent international effort to safeguard human lives, homes, rights and livelihoods."
PRIME MINISTER OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA, MICHAEL SOMARE
"The answer is simple. If we lose the world's forests, we lose the fight against climate change. Rainforests are our Earth's greatest utility -- our planet's lungs, thermostat and air-conditioning system."
PRESIDENT OF THE WORLD BANK, ROBERT ZOELLICK
"Climate change policies cannot be the frosting on the cake of development; they must be baked into the recipe of growth and social development."
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE FAO, JACQUES DIOUF
"Low-income people everywhere will be at risk of food insecurity due to loss of assets, absence of alternative livelihood options and lack of adequate insurance coverage from extreme weather events." -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on: http://blogs.reuters.com/environment/ (Compiled by David Fogarty; Editing by Jerry Norton)
