By Joydeep Gupta, IANS
Bali : Climate change is getting worse, and it is the defining challenge of our age, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday at the opening of the high-level segment of the climate change conference here.
“The eyes of the world are upon you,” Ban told nearly 11,000 delegates from 187 countries who gathered at the main plenary hall of the Bali International Convention Centre and watched the opening ceremony on closed circuit television all over the venue.
“The time for equivocation is over and the time to act is now,” Ban said. “We now know that unless we act there will be severe consequences (of global warming) – sea level rise, droughts, floods and the loss of one-third of the world’s animal species. The cost of inaction is far more than the cost of action.”
As power suits took over from batik at the opening of the high-level segment and security reached an all-time high, the longest applause at the plenary hall of the Bali International Convention Centre was reserved for Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who has ratified the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, his first act after he took office 10 days ago.
From the tone of remarks by the UN secretary general and other senior officials, it was clear that the delegates had not yet been able to agree on the Bali roadmap to start negotiations for a post-2012 treaty when the current phase of the Kyoto Protocol comes to end.
Ban said later at a media conference: “We need political leadership to provide the answers to climate change. I’m here to remind the ministers and negotiators to heed that call.
“Parties (to the climate convention) have to agree on the agenda for future negotiations and the 2009 deadline.” Asked what would happen if they did not, the UN secretary general discounted the possibility of failure here.
“We’re at a crossroads between a comprehensive agreement to address climate change and betrayal of the world and of future generations,” he said.
There has been much debate at the Bali summit over using an emission reduction target of 25-40 percent between 1990 and 2020 as the benchmark for negotiations.
Paula Dobriansky, the US Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs and head of the government delegation, reiterated to the media that Washington was against the benchmark “because that will pre-judge the process of negotiations”.
Asked about this, Ban said he had met the senior US government delegates Tuesday and was aware of the differences in opinion. “The 25-40 percent benchmark will have to be negotiated” was all he would say.
But Ban went on to “urge major economies to exercise flexibility and demonstrate leadership. I have urged the US to do that.
“Industrialised countries have a historic responsibility because they have caused most of this global warming. Plus, they have the capacity – technological, financial and adaptive – to deal with this problem.
“The technological and financial capacity should be given to developing countries so that they can get on board” in the fight against climate change,” he said.
At the opening session, reminding the delegates that climate change also provided an opportunity to move to a new age of green economics and sustainable development, Ban said: “You must make this change possible.
“The consensus on the building blocks to address climate change must involve all nations – developed and developing. The atmosphere cannot distinguish between them.
“Climate change affects all but not equally. The poorest are hit hardest. Developed countries must continue to curb their greenhouse gas emissions. Developing countries need incentives to move in the same direction.”
He told the delegates: “What the world expects is for you to start negotiations. I know agreement will not be easy. The UN will assist in every possible way.
“You have a clear charge. This is your chance to live up to it. If we leave Bali without a breakthrough we’ll fail the people of the world and future generations. We’re all part of the problem; let us all be part of the solution.”