UN chief opens summit on climate change

UN chief Ban Ki-moon opened a summit on climate change here yesterday, warning that the world's response to the global warming crisis "will define us, our era, and ultimately the global legacy we leave for future generations".
"The time for doubt has passed," said Ban, noting the grim 4th assessment on climate change by the United Nations' top scientific panel this year.
"If we do not act now, the impact of climate change will be devastating," he said. "We have affordable measures and technologies to begin addressing the problem right now. What we do not have is time."
The exceptional one-day summit entitled "The Future in Our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change," gathers around 150 nations, some 80 of them at the level of head of state or government.
It aims at breaking the deadlock in efforts to deepen cuts in emissions of greenhouse gases, which trap heat from the sun and are inflicting damaging change to Earth's climate system.
Ban said that, if as scientists have indicated, global emissions are to peak within the next 10 to 15 years to keep warming to a tolerable level, "all sectors will need to be engaged," at the political level, by business, technology and finance.
He said a December 3-14 UN conference on global warming in Bali, Indonesia, has to set the stage for a comprehensive agreement for deepening and accelerating action from 2012, when the first phase of the Kyoto Protocol runs out.
"Our goal must be nothing short of a real breakthrough in Bali," he declared.
Industrialised countries should show "enhanced leadership" on reducing their own emissions, and developing countries should have incentives to tackle their own pollution, "but without sacrificing economic growth or poverty reduction," said Ban.
In addition, developing countries bearing the brunt of climate change needed "significantly increased support" for coping with the threat, he said.
Bali "will succeed or fail based on the strength of the leadership displayed by the people in this hall," said Ban.
"We hold the future in our hands. Together, we must ensure that our grandchildren will not have to ask why we failed to do the right thing, and left them to suffer the consequences."