Time Running Out to Avoid Devastating Earth Crisis

Time Running Out to Avoid Devastating Earth Crisis



2007 September -   United States President 
George W. Bush today told the UN General Assembly that he supports a 
"strong and vibrant" United Nations empowered to carry out the shared 
goals of the world body and its host country, from addressing global 
pandemics to stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to 
dealing with climate change.

"As America works with the United Nations to alleviate immediate human 
needs, we are also coming together to address long-term challenges," 
President Bush told the assembly. "Together, we are preparing for 
pandemics that could cause death and suffering on a global scale. 
Together, we are working to stop the proliferation of weapons of mass 
destruction. And together, we are confronting the challenges of energy 
security, environmental quality, and climate change." 
President Bush voiced appreciation for "the discussions on climate change 
led by the secretary-general" last night, when the two attended a dinner 
that capped a day of events devoted to galvanizing the international 
community on the issue. 
But Bush did not attend the day-long high-level climate talks convened at 
UN Headquarters by the secretary-general. Instead, he held bi-lateral 
meetings at the The Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York with President 
Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority and with Brazilian President 
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. 
Asked about the lack of participation of President Bush, who attended the 
dinner but not the day's meeting, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon replied 
that the U.S. leader said an upcoming meeting he has planned bringing 
together industrialized countries aimed to be supportive. "He made it 
quite clear that what he is going to do is to help the United Nations so 
that the United Nations can work to address this global warming issue." 

Bush will convene the first of a series of climate meetings with the 
leaders of "major economies" Thursday and Friday in Washington. Fifteen 
national governments plus the European Union and the United Nations are 
scheduled to attend. Bush said the conference will place "special 
emphasis" on technology. 
At Monday's high level climate meeting, Secretary-General Ban said, "A new 
global commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions is urgently needed if 
the world hopes to avert the most dire affects of human-caused climate 
change. The message is quite simple,'' Ban said. "We know enough to act. 
If we don't act now, the impact of climate change will be devastating.'' 
"All the developed countries and the major emitting countries must commit 
to the objective of reducing emissions by at least 50 percent between now 
and 2050,'' French President Nicolas Sarkozy said. "Collective action is 
imperative." 
But Bush's continued resistance of limits on emissions of greenhouse gases 
has proved a stumbling block to many attempts to establish this 
commitment, including at this summer's G8 summit in Germany. 
The strongest U.S. voice at Monday's meeting was that of former Vice 
President Al Gore who called for "a new Marshall Plan" that will 
"simultaneously tackle global warming and poverty." 
"We must link poverty reduction with the sharp reduction of carbon dioxide 
emissions," Gore said, calling for a plan of attack like that of the 
Marshall Plan, the post-World War II European reconstruction initiative of 
the United States, to link the struggles against climate change and 
poverty. 
"We now face a global crisis that makes it abundantly clear that increased 
carbon dioxide emissions anywhere are a threat to the integrity of this 
planet's climate everywhere," Gore told a luncheon event called "Global 
Voices on Climate Change." 
The event, hosted by Denmark, Indonesia, Kenya and Poland, was held on the 
sidelines of the largest-ever gathering of world leaders on climate 
change.

Increased emissions are responsible for rising temperatures and rising sea 
levels, which combine to elevate both food and water insecurity worldwide, 
Gore said. 
"The old divide between North and South, between developed and developing, 
is now obsolete," he told the event's participants, who included 40 heads 
of state or government, nine deputy prime ministers and vice presidents 
and 70 cabinet ministers from all over the world. 
Gore also urged the completion by 2009 of negotiations for creating a 
successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. The current global framework 
for reducing greenhouse gas emissions took effect in February 2005 and it 
will expire in 2012. 
The next opportunity to create that successor agreement comes in December 
in Bali, Indonesia, when all governments that are Parties to the UN 
Framework Convention on Climate Change, hold their annual conference. 
"We simply cannot wait longer," Gore said, calling on heads of state to 
convene meetings every three months until a post-Kyoto treaty is agreed 
upon. 
"We cannot continue business as usual," Gore urged. "We cannot continue at 
a slow pace." 
A second strong voice from the United States, Governor Arnold 
Schwarzenegger of California, told the high-level meeting on climate 
change that his state is on the "cutting edge of what is to come. And what 
is coming will benefit the countries and peoples represented in this 
chamber."

"California is mobilizing technologically, financially and politically to 
fight global warming change," said the governor, "and we're not doing this 
alone." 
"While California is leading in the U.S.," he said, "we are building on 
the work of the European countries who have led the way up until now and 
have done extraordinary work. England has already met its Kyoto goals. 
Germany has pioneered solar. The EU has led with its trading systems, and 
the list goes on and on." 
Last year California enacted Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards and also 
enacted the world's first Low Carbon Fuel Standard. But Schwarzenegger 
said he does not believe that the California standards will solve global 
warming. 
"Of course not," he said. "What we are doing is changing the dynamic, 
preparing the way, and encouraging the future. The aerospace industry 
built the modern economy of Southern California. The computer industry and 
the internet built the economy of the Silicon Valley, and now clean, green 
technology, along with biotech, will take California to the next level." 
"Do not lose hope," Schwarzenegger encouraged the delegates. "I do not 
believe that doom and gloom and disaster are the only outcomes. Humanity 
is smart, and nature is amazingly regenerative. I believe that we can 
renew the climate of this planet. I believe this 100 percent." 
Lo Sze Ping, from Greenpeace China, told the attendees that the world's 
worst per capita emitting countries need to stop using developing 
countries as an excuse not to act. 
Lo called for an "energy revolution" with massive uptake in energy saving 
and renewable energy technology worldwide, and real action by world 
leaders rather than more talk. 
"At the climate negotiations in December, you must therefore agree to 
nothing short of a Bali Mandate," he said. "Not a road map to nowhere, not 
a wish list." 
Today at the UN General Assembly debate, many leaders addressed the issue 
of climate change. 
General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim of the former Yugoslav Republic of 
Macedonia said, "The dramatic effects of climate change have become 
increasingly visible and violent, with those least responsible for it 
suffering the most." 
He said countries have sent a strong political message that the time for 
action had come, which was why he had proposed creating a comprehensive 
road map to guide the way forward for the United Nations. 
President Lula of Brazil welcomed the secretary-general's decision to 
encourage high-level debate on climate change. "If the groundwork on 
global development is not rebuilt, the risks of unprecedented 
environmental and human catastrophe will grow," he said. 
Highly industrialized countries should set the example by fully complying 
with commitments under the Kyoto Protocol, Lula said, encouraging the 
General Assembly to set more ambitious environmental goals beyond 2012, 
beginning with universal accession to the Protocol. 
He said Brazil would soon launch a National Plan to Combat Climate Change 
and, recognizing the central role of deforestation in climate change, said 
Brazil has cut the rate of deforestation in the Amazon region in half over 
the last three years. 
"Brazil will under no circumstance abdicate either its sovereignty or its 
responsibilities in the Amazon," Lula said.

He proposed a new Conference on Environment and Development to be hosted 
by Brazil in 2012. The purpose would be to review what had been achieved 
since 1992 and to set a new course of action. The first UN Conference on 
Environment and Development, commonly known as the Rio Earth Summit, was 
held in 1992 and popularized the concept of sustainable development. 
"We will not overcome the terrible impacts of climate change until 
humanity changes its patterns of energy production and consumption," Lula 
said. He suggested a greater use of biofuels for energy, and said that his 
country's experience over the past 30 years showed that biofuel production 
did not affect food security. It was possible to combine biofuels with 
environmental protection and food production. 
In the future, Brazilian biofuels on the world market would have a seal of 
assurance for its social, labor, and environmental quality. He said an 
international conference to lay the foundations for global cooperation on 
the issue of biofuels has been scheduled for 2008 in Brazil. 
Following his meeting Monday with President Bush, the Brazilian leader 
said that on climate change Bush "has demonstrated the willingness to 
reach an agreement - in the many different conversations that we have had 
he has demonstrated very clearly his willingness, and the U.S. is willing 
to be more flexible. And he's also willing to discuss with all countries 
on climate change." 
President of Chile Michelle Bachelet told the UN General Assembly today 
that a new global political consensus is needed to deal with climate 
change, based on a shared but differentiated set of responsibilities and 
within the framework of the United Nations. "If we do not act now, the 
future of all humanity will be endangered," she warned.

Bachelet described the impact of climate change on her country, where "the 
speed with which the glaciers are melting has doubled in the past 10 
years." At the same time, Chile's southern zones are experiencing a 
"dangerous depletion of the ozone layer, jeopardizing the health of our 
citizens." 
She called for stepped-up international action. "There is no time to lose. 
The effort of consensus that we must make, the effort to enlist the 
greatest possible support, is comparable only to the effort for peace made 
on the occasion of the adoption of the San Francisco [UN] Charter six 
decades ago." 
While acknowledging that all countries must contribute to this effort, she 
emphasized that those who "have already polluted and achieved their 
development" have special responsibilities. 
"We ask the developed countries to promise technical and financial 
assistance to the developing countries that most need help with their 
efforts to combat climate change." And, she said, developing countries 
must undertake "additional emissions reduction actions in the framework of 
a global effort." 
Bachelet voiced hope for the success of negotiations planned for Bali, 
Indonesia this December aimed at hammering out a successor pact to the 
legally binding Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions, which is set 
to expire in 2012. 
Prime Minister of Portugal Jose Socrates, speaking on behalf of the 
European Union, called climate change "one of the great challenges facing 
mankind." 

The response to it should be global and collective with enough political 
will and urgent, determined action to achieve success, he said. 
He hoped yesterday's High-Level Event on Climate Change would add momentum 
to the creation of a comprehensive post-2012 agreement on the climate 
regime. 
In an effort to take the lead on environmental issues, the European Union 
decided to raise its commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions from 20 
percent to 30 percent, he reminded the General Assembly. He called once 
again for global greenhouse gas emissions to be reduced by at least 50 
percent from 1990 levels by 2050. 
President of Ghana John Agyekum Kufuor told the delegates that in Africa, 
the consequences of climate change have made it difficult for many to 
guarantee the necessities of life. 
Erratic rainfall patterns, drought, desertification, floods, and other 
weather-related patterns had exacerbated famine, retarded efforts to 
reduce poverty, and undermined development progress. He urged the 
international community to accelerate its cooperation in aiding developing 
countries' efforts to adapt to climate change impact through finance and 
technology transfer. 
President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev described the disaster of the 
Aral Sea, which had lost three quarters of its water by the 1990s, 
devastating millions of people living around it and damaging the 
environment of the Eurasian continent by salt from the exposed sea bed. 
As Kazakhstan is a major energy producer, he proposed discussion of a 
global energy and environment strategy at the 2012 World Summit on 
Sustainable Development and said he was committed to ensuring global 
energy balance and security. 

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