By DPA
Bonn : The head of the UN Climate Secretariat urged the world’s governments Tuesday to make next month’s climate change conference on Bali a success.
Politicians had to respond to the clear warnings issued by scientists on the effects of global warming, Yvo de Boer told a news conference in the former West German capital of Bonn.
The UN’s top climate change official said it was imperative for the gathering in Bali to launch negotiations for a successor to the Koyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emission that expires in 2012.
Delegates at the meeting from December 3-14 needed to agree on a timetable and a concluding date for future negotiations, otherwise the Bali conference would be a failure, he said.
De Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said a future UN climate change regime needed to expand the central elements of the Koyoto Protocol while using other policy tools such as carbon taxes.
“Only then can we ensure that the type of sweeping emissions reductions that science tells us are needed are brought about and the billions of dollars needed for measures to adapt to the inevitable effects of climate change are generated,” he added.
New data released by the UNFCCC showed Kyoto Protocol targets committing industrialized countries to a 5 per cent reduction from 2008-2012 when compared to 1990 are likely to be met.
Greenhouse gas emissions by industrial nations that signed and ratified the protocol are likely to decrease 11 per cent by 2012 compared to 1990, de Boer said.
But while the European Union as a whole is projected to achieve its objective, making use of Kyoto mechanisms such as emissions trading, other Kyoto parties are expected to see an upward trend in emissions, the UNFCCC said.
“What is positive is that parties to the Kyoto Protocol have been taking their commitments seriously in as much as they have been putting into place police and infrastructure to support implementation,” he said.