PlanetArk 11 Feb 08;
CHICAGO - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday the world is on the cusp of "the age of green economics" and called on nations to cooperate to fight global warming and promote the transformation.
"With the right financial incentives and a global framework, we can steer economic growth in a low-carbon direction," Ban said in remarks prepared for delivery to a Chicago business group.
Ban, who has made the environment a centerpiece of his year-long leadership of the UN, urged the United States and other countries to partner with the "world's only truly global institution" to combat such scourges as climate change, terrorism and infectious diseases.
"No nation, alone, can deal with such problems," Ban said. "Operating effectively in today's world requires partnership. It requires co-operation, engagement and dialogue -- as well as global rules."
Three-quarters of Americans in surveys believe the United Nations should play a larger role in the world, he said, and a similar proportion say US foreign policy should be coordinated with the international body.
The United States is the biggest single funder of the United Nations though the body has been an object of frequent criticism, particularly from Republicans, for how it is run and for the perception it impedes US goals.
Ban said global investment in green energy is projected to hit $1.9 trillion by 2020, an indication of an economic shift that will rival the industrial revolution and the technology revolution of the past two centuries.
"We're now on the threshold of another (transformation) -- the age of green economics," Ban said.
"Businesspeople in so many parts of the world are demanding clear and consistent policies on climate change -- global policies for a global problem," he said.
(Reporting by Andrew Stern; editing by Stuart Grudgings)
UN chief calls for climate change action
Edith M. Lederer, Associated Press Yahoo News 12 Feb 08;
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged all nations to join private companies, civic groups and individuals this year in sustaining "the unprecedented momentum" to fight global warming.
"If 2007 was the year when climate change rose to the top of the global agenda, 2008 is the time we must take concerted action," Ban said at the start of a two-day U.N. General Assembly debate to generate support for a new treaty by 2009 to fight global warming.
General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim invited U.N. member states, government officials and business and civic leaders to the United Nations to follow up December's international climate conference on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. There, delegates from nearly 190 nations agreed to adopt a blueprint to control global warming gases before the end of next year.
"The conference delivered what it set out to do," Ban said. "Now the real work begins. The challenge is huge. We have less than two years to craft an agreement on action that measures up to what the science tells us."
In key reports last year, a U.N. network of climate and other scientists warned of severe consequences — from rising seas, droughts, severe weather, species extinction and other effects — without sharp cutbacks in emissions of the industrial, transportation and agricultural gases blamed for global warming.
To avoid the worst, the Nobel Prize-winning U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said greenhouse gas emissions should be reduced by 25 percent to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 — and by at least half by 2050.
"This is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation. This is just as important as stopping terrorism," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday in the keynote address.
The new agreement would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which requires 36 industrial nations to radically reduce emissions by 2012, when it expires. The United States is the only major industrial country that did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
A new agreement needs to be adopted by the end of 2009 to ensure a smooth transition to a new post-Kyoto regime. Before then, Ban said, the international community must map emission limitation commitments; mobilize the financing needed and technological innovation; and agree on "essential action to adapt to the impacts of climate change."
He called on governments, organizations, and individuals around the world to "help sustain the unprecedented momentum that propelled the climate change agenda forward so dramatically last year."
"Developed countries need to take a clear lead, but success is possible only if all countries act," Ban said. "The more ambitious the commitments by developed countries, the more actions we can expect from developing countries."
Kerim said new technologies, renewable energies and more research are essential to solve the problem.
"What is needed is ... a global alliance for action, shared by individuals, the media, lawmakers, business leaders, governments, regional organizations and ultimately the global community embodied in the U.N," Kerim said. "Only then will we have a chance to tackle this enormous challenge to our way of life."
Bloomberg said the world's cities can help lead the way toward reducing the greenhouse gases blamed for warming the planet. He also called on the United States to set "real and binding" targets to reduce emissions, instead of the current U.S. strategy that largely relies on voluntary approaches and spending for research and technology.
"I believe that the American people are prepared for our responsibility to lead by example," he said.
Special guests at the climate debate include British billionaire Richard Branson, who has decided to invest heavily in "biofuels," and actress Daryl Hannah. Nearly 100 countries have signed up to speak and 20 are sending ministers, assembly spokesman Janos Tisovszky said Friday.
The debate follows a recent report by the secretary-general which said global warming could cost the world up to $20 trillion over two decades for cleaner energy sources and do the most harm to people who can least afford to adapt.
UN chief, NY mayor urge world action on climate change
Gerard Aziakou Yahoo News 11 Feb 08;
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined UN chief Ban Ki-moon here Monday in galvanizing world action to roll back climate change, an issue he described as "just as important" as nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
"We are damaging our planet. Nobody knows at what rate but at any rate it is not good," Bloomberg told reporters after addressing a UN General Assembly debate on the impact of global warming.
"We have to do something about it and we have to do it now," he added.
Calling climate change "perhaps one of the most important issues facing us," Bloomberg said: "This is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation. This is just as important as stopping terrorism."
"Terrorists kill people, weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill enormous numbers of people. Global warming long-term has the potential to kill everybody," the New York mayor said.
At the opening of a two-day meeting, Ban underscored the need to "encourage new kinds of cleaner technologies, industries and jobs and integrate climate change risks into national policies and practices."
He reminded participants of the achievements made at last December's Bali conference in Indonesia, where agreement was reached on setting a 2009 deadline for a landmark new treaty to cut global-warming greenhouse gases once the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
"Developed countries need to take a clear lead, but success is possible only if all countries act," the UN chief said.
"The more ambitious the commitments by developed countries, the more actions we can expect from developing countries," he said. "The more developing countries engage, the more ambitiously the developed countries will commit."
British tycoon Richard Branson, president of the Virgin Atlantic airline called for "a powerful partnership that helps to scale up the best innovation by bringing together business leaders, economists, environmental groups and other expert organizations to tackle the war against global warming."
He insisted that this was indeed "a war ... the first war that truly threatens almost all human life -- a war that to win we must all fight together."
And he said that Virgin was doing its part by putting up a 25 million-dollar (17.25 million-euro) prize to "encourage scientists and inventors to put their mind to it.
"Today, we would like to urge the 20 wealthiest governments to match us in this endeavor so we can make the largest scientific price ever: a half a billion-dollar prize," Branson told the meeting.
Bloomberg said that in the United States, "cities and states have stepped up to the plate where the government has been unwilling to do so."
In New York City, he cited a campaign to "reduce our carbon footprint," for instance by converting taxis to fuel-saving hybrids over the next five years, a move which he said would reduce the city's entire carbon footprint by half of one percent.
He also cited a drive to plant one million trees throughout the city over the next 10 years, a move which "will not only capture carbon dioxide, but also clean the air, cool our streets, reduce street flooding and raise property values."
Bloomberg also highlighted efforts to make the city's buildings environmentally friendly -- "not just to cut carbon emissions, but also because it will allow us to redirect billions of dollars a year it now takes to heat and cool these buildings, often inefficiently, to better purposes."
And he unveiled a long-term initiative to reduce consumption of tropical hardwoods by city agencies.
In the short-term, the plan aims to cut tropical hardwood use by 20 percent by eliminating these woods from construction and maintenance of park benches, and piloting alternative materials for existing boardwalks.
"Setting serious carbon targets will not hamper growth," Bloomberg said.
"If the US and the developing nations make such commitments, then the prospects for a new international global warming accord improve greatly."
