UN chief hails global climate meeting as success

2394, 25/09/07

World leaders have shown the political will necessary for a breakthrough in climate negotiations at a UN conference in Bali this December, said UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon at the end of a one-day climate conference in Washington on Monday.

The conference brought together an unprecedented 80 heads of government and 150 countries to prepare the ground for talks on a successor to the Kyoto protocol.

"Today I heard a clear call from world leaders for a breakthrough at Bali," said Mr Ban, "and I now believe we have a major political commitment to achieving that."

US president George Bush did not attend the daytime event, but did go to the evening dinner.  Speaking after the dinner, Mr Ban underlined the US's commitment to tackle climate change in the UN framework.

"He made it quite clear that what he is going to do is to help the UN so that the UN can work to address this global warming issue," he said.  The US has organised its own climate meeting with the world's top emitters for later this week.

At Monday's conference, EU president Jose Manuel Barroso reaffirmed Europe's commitment to its Kyoto targets and emphasised the key role of the carbon market to tackle climate change.

Japanese and Canadian officials said any post-2012 climate framework must include all major emitters but should be flexible enough to allow for different national approaches.

Greenpeace China reminded delegates of the work that lies ahead: "The work in Bali cannot be a road map, not a wish list, but a clear mandate to a strengthened phase of the Kyoto protocol by 2009," said campaigns director Lo Sze Ping.

Follow-up: See meeting homepage http://www.un.org/climatechange/2007highlevel/

(with links to speaker contributions), Ban Ki-moon conclusions

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23944&Cr=climate&Cr1=change

and post-dinner comments http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23946&Cr=climate&Cr1=change,

plus statements from Barroso http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/07/563&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en,

general assembly president Srgjan Kerim

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23930&Cr=climate&Cr1=change,

rainforest countries http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=23945&Cr=climate&Cr1=change,

Greenpeace http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports/un-lo-sze-ping-speech,

WWF http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=114000,

and Ieta http://www.ieta.org/ieta/www/pages/getfile.php?docID=2542.

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