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‘Redress of climate change crisis a common responsibility’

Special Correspondent

Developing countries should get onboard to find solutions: Ban Ki-moon

— Photo: V. Sudershan

External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee presents the Sustainable Development Leadership Award to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (left) in New Delhi on Thursday. TERI director-general R.K. Pachauri (right) and the former Maldives President, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, are present.

NEW DELHI: Hoping for an ambitious, comprehensive and ratifiable agreement at Copenhagen later this year to deal with the climate crisis, United Nations General Secretary Ban Ki-moon has said the negotiations will have to resolve three main political challenges — clarity on commitment, financing the mitigation and adaptation needs of the developing countries, and finding credible solutions for the governance of new funds.

Speaking at the Ninth Delhi Sustainable Development Summit (DSDS), organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) here, Mr. Ban said Copenhagen, where the U.N. climate change conference is scheduled in December, must clarify commitments of developed countries to reduce their emissions by setting ambitious mid-term targets, with credible baselines and advance on the issue of financing the mitigation and adaptation needs of developing countries.

In this context, the agreement on the Adaptation Fund in Poznan was a good first step, he said. Finally, governments as well as the United Nations system must come up with credible solutions for governance of new funds and for their implementation response.

Obama’s assurance

Mr. Ban said U.S. President Barack Obama had assured him of full cooperation to make the Copenhagen meet a success.

“He has assured me that climate change is his domestic as well as international priority. Domestic action by the United States is beginning to unfold,” Mr. Ban said. He looked forward to the leadership role of the U.S. in the inter-governmental negotiations.

Pointing out that poverty could not be overcome if we neglected or depleted our natural capital, Mr. Ban said science had shown that we were depleting the planet’s natural assets at an unsustainable rate. “We cannot afford to ignore or underestimate this existential threat. Failure to combat climate change would increase poverty and hardships, destabilise economies, and breed insecurity in many countries.”

Later at an interactive session, Mr. Ban asked the developing countries to make more efforts to address climate change and “get on-board” with the industrialised world to find solutions for the crisis. “Brazil has been taking a quite proactive role in the implementation of bio-fuel and afforestaion policies. China and India have also taken steps. But that is not enough, they have to do more.”

He said redress of the climate change crisis was a “common and shared” responsibility and countries of the world should not “argue” on who has to contribute more or less to tackle global warming.

India and some of the developing countries have been arguing on the principle of common but differentiated responsibility in tackling global warming citing that they had no share in having caused the problem.

“Just believing that the industrialised countries will be forthcoming in providing technology transfer and financial support...I think all the countries should get on-board, particularly those four [developing] countries should take a leading and a positive role,” Mr. Ban said.

R.K. Pachauri, chairperson of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Director-General of TERI , rued that the Kyoto Protocol, which was required to implement the spirit and intent of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, had clearly fallen short of original expectations. At the same time, the scientific evidence of climate change has become stronger and more compelling.

Emphasising that the impacts of climate change would leave no part of the globe untouched, he said voluminous snowfall in Britain were the IPCC’s assessment of an increase in extreme precipitation events.

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