By Xinhua
Bali, Indonesia : The suits were back and the mood was decidedly more serious on Wednesday as the U.N. climate conference ran into a high-level segment for decision-making.
The arrival U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and 144 ministers and six heads of state apparently prompted delegates to don their more business-like attire after a week and a half being casually dressed.
“The eyes of the world are upon us,” Ban Ki-moon told ministers and other high-level officials Wednesday morning.
The United Nations, which has been at the forefront of pushing the issue of climate change at the international level, announced that it was going green in Bali.
The secretary-general said: “We will lead by example, by moving towards carbon neutrality throughout the UN System.”
Some 20 U.N. agencies, funds and programs joined together — something that is difficult to begin with — to offset the emissions caused by their travel to Bali. The carbon offsets will be accomplished by buying certified emission credits from the newly operational Adaptation Fund.
The greening effort will go beyond Bali, and the U.N. system is working on a number of ways to make its operations climate-neutral and Norway is providing 820,000 U.S. dollars for the effort.
Some countries are already on the road to becoming climate neutral, with Norway aiming for 2050; Costa Rica planning to be climate neutral by 2021, its 200th anniversary of independence; and New Zealand shooting for a 2025 goal of generating 90 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.
More people seemed determined to get to work on time Wednesday, causing long lines through security checkpoints, bag checkers, badge scanners and x-ray machines. No one questioned the heightened security, in light of the bombing that killed U.N. staff in Algiers.
A moment of silence was observed to remember the victims of the bombing at the beginning of the opening ceremony for the high-level segment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference — Bali, 2007.
The mood was also serious on climate change matters, with progress on the various issues moving advancing at very uneven speeds. Countries have agreed on the details to make the new Adaptation Fund work, but decisions on some of the major issues of the conference will now be left for the ministers, including the Bali roadmap.
“We work for success, we don’t work for failure. We must succeed at this Bali meeting. We must be able to launch negotiations for an international agreement by 2009 with a clear agenda,” said the U.N. chief at an afternoon press briefing Wednesday following the opening of the high-level segment.
During the Bali conference, the developed countries have been urged to confirm the target range of reducing emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020. The industrialized countries have also been asked to recognize the need of developing countries for technology transfer and financing of new, cleaner technologies.
The Kyoto Protocol binds 36 industrialized nations to cut their emissions by an average 5 percent below the 1990 level between 2008 ad 2012.
The U.S. delegation to the climate conference rejects the European Union’s proposal of reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by 25-40 percent by 2020 for rich countries.
The U.N. conference, the 13th Conference of the 192 Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)and the third meeting of the 176 Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, is being attended by more than 11,000 people, making it the largest U.N. climate change meeting ever held.