UN World Leader Climate Meeting in New York

UN World Leader Climate Meeting in New York



2007 September -   National leaders from 
across the world are gathering at United Nations Headquarters in New York 
today for the largest ever high level meeting on climate change. The talks 
are expected to produce a strong call for action to address the planet's 
rising temperature that threatens higher sea levels, water scarcity, 
extreme weather patterns, a wave of extinctions, and the spread of 
tropical diseases. 
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon convened the brainstorming session of 
more than 80 heads of state and government with a view to increasing the 
political will to limit the emission of greenhouse gases produced by human 
activities such as the burning of coal, oil and gas.

"We cannot go on this way for long," says Ban. "We cannot continue with 
business as usual. The time has come for decisive action on a global 
scale." 
Leaders will have their eyes on the annual UN climate conference this 
December in Bali, Indonesia. There, governments will begin to negotiate a 
global climate treaty covering the period after the current framework - 
the Kyoto Protocol - expires in 2012. 
The most senior UN climate official says that today's climate meeting "is 
a sign of the growing consensus that the international community needs to 
act on climate change."

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate 
Change, said Saturday that the Bali conference must respond to the 
conclusions of the expert Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, 
which has predicted an increase in climate-change related impacts, such as 
changes in temperature and rainfall, increasing sea level and more 
frequent droughts, floods and other extreme weather events. 
But the Bali meeting, he said, "cannot get to that point without the 
support of heads of state and government that will be gathering here on 
Monday." 
He voiced confidence that the Secretary-General's initiative "will serve 
that purpose" and expressed hope that the meeting would produce "a clear 
call from heads of state and government for real negotiations to begin in 
Bali in December with a view to completing them in 2009." 
In an unprecedented agreement Friday, industrialized and developing 
countries decided to accelerate the phaseout of coolant chemicals that are 
harmful to the ozone layer and also are a cause of global climate warming. 

Representatives of 191 countries that are Parties to the Montreal Proctol 
on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer agreed unanimously to 
accelerate phaseouts of hydrochlorofluorocarbons from 2009.

"With the enactment of mandatory U.S. measures probably occurring no later 
than 2010, the global politics of climate change will be thoroughly 
transformed. Having resolved what it will do at home, the United States 
will know far better what it can commit to abroad, Claussen and Diringer 
say. "To avoid losing competitive advantage to countries without emission 
controls, the United States will have a strong incentive to rejoin and 
strengthen the global climate effort." 
Meanwhile, as world leaders and dignitaries arrive in New York for the 
United Nations General Assembly meetings, the government of India is 
giving the city an Indian complexion. Unveiling a global marketing drive 
in Manhattan with its Incredible India at 60 campaign, India is celebrating 
its 60th anniversary of independence from British rule this year. 
The four-day celebration, which opened Sunday, organized by the 
Confederation of Indian Industry and the Indian Ministry of Tourism, will 
see India taking over public places to showcase Bollywood stars, 
traditional dances, regional food, fashion shows and business conferences. 

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