United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday that time was running out to reach a comprehensive global deal on greenhouse gas emissions needed to help mitigate human- induced climate change.
“We have only fifteen negotiating days left,” Ban said, noting that, in December, delegates would gather in Copenhagen to try and hammer out a deal.
In his remarks to the third World Climate Conference taking place in Geneva the UN’s chief said the deal had to be “ambitious, comprehensive and fair” and “based on sound science.” “We need ambitious mid-term mitigation targets by developed countries,” Ban said, while “developing countries need to act to slow the growth of their emissions.” Ban, who arrived in Geneva directly from the Arctic Circle in Norway, where he said he witnessed rapid ongoing changes, cautioned that climate change was already having economic and political consequences.
“Climate change is altering the geopolitical landscape. We see this in the new scramble for Arctic resources as the north-west and north-east passages open up. We see it in increased migration from the drylands that are home to 2 billion people. And we see it in rising sea levels,” Ban said.
