UN Assembly's First Climate Change Meeting Needs Extra Day

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--The first-ever U.N. General Assembly meeting on climate change needed an extra day Thursday so speakers from worried nations could discuss global warming's impact and the need

Thursday, August 2nd 2007, 10:12 pm

By: News On 6

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--The first-ever U.N. General Assembly meeting on climate change needed an extra day Thursday so speakers from worried nations could discuss global warming's impact and the need for international action.

Calling climate change ``the most pressing and important international issue of our time,'' Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said ``the world is actually motivated on the issue in a way it wasn't'' in January--``and the political momentum has to just grow and grow.''

Years of intense, difficult negotiations are expected to start at a December meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali. It will focus on replacing the Kyoto protocol, which requires 35 industrial nations to cut their global-warming emissions 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, when the accord expires.

The question of what to do has become increasingly complex because of competing environmental, economic and energy concerns from countries with different priorities.

The United States, the largest producer of greenhouse gases, is not a party to the Kyoto agreement and large developing countries such as China, the second-largest emitter, India and Brazil are exempt from its obligations. They are afraid they will be called on to reduce emissions after 2012, which would hurt their economic growth and poverty-eradication efforts.

At the same time, small island states in the Pacific are demanding action to deal with rising sea levels, while oil-producing countries are concerned that a major source of revenue is going to be harmed by climate change action in the future.

U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told the General Assembly the U.S. is committed to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change that is holding the Bali conference and its objective of stabilizing the concentration of greenhouse gases.

At the Bali conference, he said, the U.S. will work ``to accelerate progress on key issues'' including promoting sustainable forestry and agriculture, adapting to climate change's impact and accelerating clean, energy efficient technologies.

The General Assembly meeting is part of a major U.N. effort to generate support from political leaders and ordinary people around the world who have been affected by drought, floods, searing heat and other climate changes.

After an opening day for panel discussions, a second, final day was scheduled for speeches. But nearly 100 of the 192 U.N. member states wanted to speak, so an extra session was held on Thursday.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who has made climate change a top priority since taking the reins of the U.N. on Jan. 1, urged all countries to reach an agreement by 2009 on a successor to the Kyoto protocol.

Ban plans a high-level meeting on climate change on Sept. 24, a day before the General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting, ``to build on existing momentum'' and ``galvanize political will.''

Jones Parry said world leaders attending that meeting could ``kick start'' the Bali negotiations if they say a successor agreement to Kyoto is crucial.

The Group of 77, which represents 132 mainly developing countries and China, said the Bali conference will have a successful conclusion if it takes ``fully into account the needs and concerns of all developing countries.''