Gore, Ban, Schwarzenegger Urge Climate Action Now
Date: 25-Sep-07
Country: INTERNATIONAL
Author: Deborah Zabarenko, Environment Correspondent
Former US Vice President Al Gore, whose concerns about
global warming were the basis for the Oscar-winning film "An
Inconvenient Truth," told a UN gathering that the developed
world needs to turn away from public scandals and face the task
of curbing the emission of greenhouse gases.
"We have to overcome the paralysis that has prevented us
from acting and focus clearly and unblinkingly on this world
crisis, rather than spending time on Anna Nicole Smith and O.J.
Simpson and Paris Hilton," Gore said, drawing applause.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said: "The time has
come to stop looking back at the Kyoto Protocol.... The rich
nations and the poor nations have different responsibilities,
but one responsibility we all have is action."
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon joined that call to
action in his remarks to about 80 world leaders who met to
focus on the problem of climate change. "Today let the world
know that you are ready to shoulder this responsibility and
that you will address this challenge head on," he said.
The session is meant to gather momentum for a meeting in
Bali, Indonesia, in December where negotiators will start work
on a climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which set
binding emissions targets for 36 developed countries. The Kyoto
plan expires in 2012.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice represented the
United States at the climate meeting, urging a technology
revolution to combat global warming.
"Put simply, the world needs a technological revolution,"
Rice said. "Existing energy technologies alone will not meet
the global demand for energy while also reducing emissions to
necessary levels."
'WE CAN WAIT NO LONGER'
President George W. Bush did not attend the session but was
to dine with Ban, along with representatives of countries that
emit the most greenhouse gases and from island nations that are
most vulnerable to rising seas forecast as a result of global
warming.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso,
representing countries that emit 15 percent of the world's
climate-warming carbon dioxide, told Reuters: "We can succeed
only if we have the United States with us."
Barroso said Schwarzenegger's speech showed that Americans
are "increasingly aware and ready to take action" on global
warming.
"We can wait no longer," said French President Nicolas
Sarkozy. "It is our duty to make decisions straight away
because otherwise it is going to be too late."
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi welcomed the new "depth
and dimension" at the UN conference, saying he found "a new
atmosphere of agreement."
Praising Schwarzenegger, a former bodybuilder and film
star, Prodi said, "It is good that there are also new actors on
the scene." Schwarzenegger's state has been a leader in passing
measures aimed at curbing climate change, including tougher
emissions standards for new motor vehicles.
The UN session is the first of three US events on
climate change this week that are likely to focus attention on
whether Washington can make good on its pledge to take a
leading role in curbing such emissions.
But it is not a negotiating session. That will come in
December in Bali, Indonesia, where climate experts will try to
craft a successor to the emissions-limiting Kyoto Protocol.
Bush has rejected the Kyoto Protocol, an international
agreement that requires 36 industrial nations to cut greenhouse
emissions by at least 5 percent from 1990 levels by 2012.
He contends the accord unfairly burdens rich countries
while exempting developing countries like China and India and
that it will cost US jobs.
Developing countries have said it is unfair to ask them to
curb their emissions as their economies grow while
industrialized nations have been polluting for decades.
Bush does plan to speak at a two-day Washing