Fwd: VISITING KYOTO, BAN CALLS FOR NEW CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT BY END OF 2009

[Henk Elegeert]

REPLY TO: D66 at nic.surfnet.nl

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: 29 jun. 2008 19:01
Subject: VISITING KYOTO, BAN CALLS FOR NEW CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT BY
END OF 2009

VISITING KYOTO, BAN CALLS FOR NEW CLIMATE CHANGE AGREEMENT BY END OF 2009

 New York, Jun 29 2008  1:00PM
 Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that the world must
galvanize its will and reach a new agreement on measures to fight
climate change by the end of 2009.

 Speaking on Sunday in the Japanese city which gave birth to the Kyoto
Protocol in 1997, Mr. Ban said the Protocol was a historic and crucial
first step by the international community to curb greenhouse gas
emissions. With the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol
ending in 2012, the Secretary-General said a new agreement must be
adopted by December 2009.

 Mr. Ban was conducting a dialogue at Kyoto University with several
hundred students, scholars and representatives of the private sector
and civil society. He told the audience that climate change was too
big and complex a challenge for any country or sector of society to
address alone; each country and each sector can and must contribute.

 "Last year, we witnessed how working together can help us forge a
path to collective action in the face of seemingly insurmountable
challenges," Mr. Ban said.

 "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, known as IPCC,
provided the science; the Stern Report, the economics; the UN
High-Level Event on Climate Change, the political leadership; Al
Gore's Inconvenient Truth, the public awareness. Taken together, all
these contributed to rising momentum and achieving a significant
breakthrough in the global response. This came in the Bali Roadmap
agreed last December, which launched a new negotiations process to
design a comprehensive post-2012 framework."

 The Secretary-General called on all major emitters to set ambitious
targets which he said were essential to conclude the deal in 2009. He
commended Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda of Japan "for the impressive
vision he recently announced for moving Japan to a low-carbon society
-- including Japan's plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 60 to
80 per cent by 2050."

 "This is the kind of leadership by example we need from developed
countries to fulfil the larger share of responsibility they bear," Mr.
Ban said.

 He added that besides long-term goals, short and medium-term targets
are important as they "will encourage necessary action by developing
countries, making a deal in 2009 possible."

 Climate change remained a focus when Mr. Ban met Japanese business
leaders in Tokyo later in the day. Speaking to about 30 senior
executives of leading Japanese corporations, the Secretary-General
said support and cooperation of the private sector was vitally
important to addressing pressing issues such as climate change.

 "The race is under way to develop and provide needed solutions, such
as clean technology, renewable energy, efficient products and
processes, and sustainable goods and services. I have no doubt that
the Japanese companies will play a leadership role in this new era of
responsible and sustainable business."

 Mr. Ban arrived in Japan on Saturday at the start of a two-week,
three-nation East Asian tour which will also take him to China, the
Republic of Korea and then back to Japan to attend the summit of Group
of Eight (G-8) industrialized countries on the northern island of
Hokkaido.

 The Secretary-General has said that top on his agenda are three
pressing, interrelated challenges: the global food crisis, climate
change, and the race to reach the global anti-poverty targets -- the
Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) -- by the deadline of 2015.

 On Monday, Mr. Ban will have an audience with the Emperor and Empress
of Japan, and hold meetings with Crown Prince Naruhito, Mr. Fukuda and
Foreign Minister Masahiko Koumura.

  2008-06-29 00:00:00.000

 ________________

 For more details go to UN News Centre at http://www.un.org/news

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