UN says world leaders must act on Climate Change by COP15 / Oxfam & agencies 4:14am 21st Sep, 2009   Sept 22. 2009    Ban Ki-moon says the world leaders are responsible for the fate of future generations.    UN chief Ban Ki-moon has opened a climate summit of around 100 leaders, warning that failure to reach a new treaty this year on fighting global warming would be morally inexcusable.    Mr Ban has convened the summit at the United Nations headquarters, with just over three months left until a conference in Copenhagen, which is meant to seal the successor to the landmark Kyoto Protocol.    He has told the leaders that they are responsible for the fate of future generations and the hopes and livelihoods of billions today.    "Failure to reach broad agreement in Copenhagen would be morally inexcusable, economically short-sighted and politically unwise," he said.    Mr Ban pointed to worst-case scenarios of UN scientists, who say that the world has only 10 years to reverse the course of climate change which would put at risk entire species and worsen natural disasters.    "The fate of future generations, and the hopes and livelihoods of billions today, rest literally with you," he said.    World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran echoed Mr. Ban’s call by challenging world leaders to focus on the human dimension of climate change.    “Every day we at WFP see the effects of the ravages of weather-related hunger on the people we assist,” she said in a statement issued today. “Every day we see people suffer from droughts and floods. Every year the situation gets worse.”    Ms. Sheeran underlined that climate change is a “crisis multiplier” – adding to the negative impact of the existing food and financial crises.    22 Sep 2009    Encouraging words but more substance needed at Climate Summit. (Oxfam)    International aid organization Oxfam welcomed encouraging remarks made by heads of state at the UN Summit on Climate Change, but cautioned that it remains to be seen if they will be translated into a fair, ambitious and binding global treaty in Copenhagen this December.    "We heard a lot of urgency in the words of world leaders who spoke today, but we must not let poetic words cover up inadequate action," said Vicky Rateau, Oxfam International spokesperson. "While the Summit generated some momentum at an important crossroads, we needed a bigger boost this close to Copenhagen."    While many leaders spoke of good intentions, those suffering from famine, drought and flooding now and in future generations need more than words. Governments must start tabling genuine commitments that will translate into action.    Oxfam is calling on rich nations, who are responsible for climate change to cut carbon emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2020, as well as deliver $150 billion a year to help poor countries cut carbon emissions and adapt to climate change. This money must be in addition to existing overseas development aid, not ''raided'' from existing aid commitments as proposed by some countries. Other than Japan, who publicly re-affirmed plans to cut carbon emissions by 25 % by 2020, solid proposals from other nations were missing from today''s talks.    "It''s time for heads of state to step up as world leaders and start putting adequate figures on the table. We do not have the luxury of time with climate change. Too long have these negotiations been treated like trade talks, with countries watching out for their own individual interests." said Barbara Stocking, CEO, Oxfam Great Britain.    "Climate change is the most pressing issue facing humanity today and is affecting the lives of millions of people worldwide. What is needed is political will on a global scale if we are really going to deliver in Copenhagen", she added.    Constance Okollet, a farmer from Uganda, who has witnessed hunger, death and an increase of cholera in her village after increasingly extreme weather, who travelled to New York with Oxfam for the UN Climate Summit, said: "I ask world leaders to help my community fight the climate change that destroys our houses, increases diseases and stops our children from attending schools. They must cut their emissions so that we can look forward to planting our crops without having to face floods that wash them away, or droughts that stop them growing at all."    Sept 2009    Less than three months remain before 180 nations meet in Copenhagen to hammer out a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, and negotiations are proving difficult. The Kyoto accord has had mixed success in binding 37 industrial countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by 2012.    UN chief Ban Ki-Moon and negotiators say that unless they can convert world leaders into committed advocates of radical action, it will be very hard to reach a credible and enforceable agreement to avoid the most devastating consequences of climate change.    As the digital counter ticking off the hours to the Copenhagen summit - which had been supposed to seal the deal on climate change - hit 77 days today, progress at the UN summit in New York is seen as vital. Nearly 100 heads of state and government are to attend the summit.    "We need these leaders to go outside their usual comfort zones," said one diplomat. "Our sense is that leaders have got a little too comfortable. They really have to hear from countries that are vulnerable and suffering."    Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which won the Nobel peace prize with Al Gore, agreed. Commenting on the leaders attending the G20 summit in Pittsburgh next week, he said: "We need to remind these people about impacts of climate change - the fact that they are inequitable and fall very heavily on some of the poorest people in the world. We are likely to see a large number of failed states if we don"t act in time."    The UN is hoping for help from Barack Obama. The US president will speak at the session, and there is anticipation he will deliver a strong signal that America is committed to action. There is growing anxiety for those kinds of reassurances, especially as conservative republican opposition to Obama"s green agenda grows in Congress.    "The first question I get any time I meet with anybody is, "Where"s the legislation? How"s it going?", Todd Stern, the State Department"s climate change envoy, said. There are also reports that China"s president, Hu Jintao, in his first appearance at the UN, will announce new commitments to curb pollution - the kind of signal that will be crucial to boost negotiations in the days leading up to Copenhagen.    "We can get a successful outcome from Copenhagen. It is achievable, but at the moment it"s in the balance," says John Ashton, Britain"s climate change envoy. "We need to close the gaps."    Those gaps grew over the summer. There is what Ashton called the "ambition gap" - the failure of leaders of the big polluting countries to sign on to the deep emissions cuts needed. Then there is the "finance gap" - the failure of industrialised states to come up with a package on how to compensate poor countries that will suffer the most devastating consequences.    "It seems to me that Copenhagen is not the end of this," said Tim Wirth, the president of the UN Foundation, and the man who, in the 1980s, helped to write the first cap-and-trade plan for acid rain. He added: "We are going to have Copenhagens for the rest of our lives." Visit the related web page
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