Ban Ki-moon calls for ‘green deal’
USA: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for a “green new
deal” on climate change on Thursday and urged for a final push in
negotiations ahead of a key summit to be held in Copenhagen in December.
“We absolutely must reach an agreement to reduce greenhouse gases and
help millions of families adapt to climate change before our time runs
out,” Ban told an audience at Johns Hopkins University in Washington,
according to a transcript made available at the United Nations. Ban said
that before the year is out he plans to go to the North Pole, as well as
to regions where drought and competition for water threaten peoples’
lives and well-being.
The United Nations is striving for a new climate treaty to be agreed
at a conference in Copenhagen in December. The new treaty would succeed
the Kyoto Protocol, which limits climate-warming greenhouse emissions
and expires in 2012.
“At Copenhagen, we need to unleash green investment and jump start a
lasting economic recovery, at the same time we strike a blow for climate
change,” Ban said.
UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe told reporters that Ban is also scheduled
to be in Copenhagen on Sunday to open a summit called the World Business
Summit on Climate Change.
United Nations, Friday, Reuters |