Posted on 12/06/2007 7:20:50 PM PST by NormsRevenge
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he favoured a binding cap on greenhouse gas emissions but noted that the climate change conference in Indonesia should focus on setting a timeline for a deal by 2009.
"As far as I am concerned, as secretary general, as a matter of principle, there should be mandatory capping," Ban told reporters here two days before he was due to leave for the Bali conference.
"However, I know that there are some concerns in some of the developing countries, therefore, this issue should be discussed in the future negotiation process," he added.
He said his goal at this time was to "first of all, launch the negotiation with a timeline", and noted that in subsequent negotiations, the international community would be able to clinch a deal on the issue of mandatory capping.
"Our ultimate goal is a comprehensive agreement on climate change that all nations can embrace," the secretary general said. "In Bali, we need to set an agenda -- a roadmap to a better future, coupled with a timeline that produces a deal by 2009."
On Thursday, China said it would not back any new proposals at the Bali meeting that run counter to existing frameworks that exempt the country from reducing greenhouse-gas output.
"We believe under current circumstances ... we should not break away from the framework set by the United Nations Framework on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol," Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.
China, along with other developing countries such as India, is under strong pressure from Europe and others at the Bali conference to agree to binding emissions cuts.
Delegates from more than 180 nations are gathered for the December 3-14 meeting, which is tasked with setting down a blueprint to slash greenhouse-gas emissions beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires.
"Our goal is that when this Bali meeting is over, we will be able to agree on official negotiations that should be launched with the future agenda as well as a timeline by the end of 2009," said Ban, who has made the fight against global warming one of his key priorities since taking office in January.
"The Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012. We assume that ratifying a successor agreement will take roughly two years," the UN chief said.
"Difficult as this path may be, we have no choice. The science has spoken loud and clear. The debate is over. ItÂ’s time to discuss solutions -- to solve this problem. We must think not only of ourselves but our children," he added.
An environmental activist acts the cutting down an inflated plastic tree during the demonstration at the venue of the UN Climate Change Conference 2007 in Nusa Dua, on Bali island, 06 December 2007. UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Thursday he favored a binding cap on greenhouse gas emissions but noted that the coming climate change conference in Indonesia should focus on setting a timeline for a deal by 2009. (AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka)
How about moving the UN to the bottom of the Marianas Trench?
10,000 jets are expected to fly into Bali for this climate change meeting leaving HUGE carbon footprint.
If it takes two years to ratify the agreement, only eight years will be left to save the Earth.
Hey Full Moon, are we cutting it a little close?
And isn’t it cute that the axe in the picture is an American flag. We’re the only ones who have already cut emissions.
Where’s Krakatoa when you need it?
Lousy carbophobes.
And, thus, via Bali, the hypocrisy proliferates.
Bali is NOT about saving the earth or any of the other eco/envirobabble.
It is about levying a tax on stupidity and ignorance.
Nothing more.
I’m certainly glad the UN is consistant....
“Isn’t the only hope for the planet that the industrialized civilizations collapse? Isn’t it our responsibility to bring that about?” (Quoting Maurice Strong, head of the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro and Executive Officer for Reform of the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations at that time.... clearly, Maurice Strong and the UN are advocating crimes against humanity by trying to prevent the industrialization and technological advancement of all people without which they are consigned to misery, starvation, disease and an unnecessarily early death.
and another quote....
from the mouth of Michael Oppenheimer, Princeton Univ., and who was for two decades with ‘Environmental Defense’, and is a long time participant on the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who most recently was the lead author of the IPCC’s Fourth Assessment Report (Nov 2007) “We can’t let other countries have the same number of cars, the same industrialization, we have in the U.S. We have to stop these Third World countires right where they are.”
....hey Michael Oppenheimer, isn’t that the same as consigning the “Third World” peoples to a life of misery, starvation, disease, high infant mortality and an early, unnecessary death? Isn’t Michael Oppenheimer advocating a crime against humanity?
Sounds like they need a little more time to set up their mega bank accounts.
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