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UN chief insists on pollution curbs
Source: Agencies |
July 2, 2009, Thursday
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UNITED Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said yesterday that the world must agree on a new treaty to curb pollution at a crucial climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December and urged business leaders to join efforts against global warming.
Following meetings in Tokyo with Prime Minister Taro Aso, Ban said he wanted Japan to play a leading role at the talks - an expectation that Aso promised to uphold.
"Japan will play an aggressive leadership role at the Copenhagen meeting," Aso said.
Ban, who has put climate change among his top priorities, said he would mobilize "every effort" to reach an agreement at the UN meeting to adopt an ambitious global treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.
"We must seal the deal in Copenhagen in December this year," the UN chief told a group of Japanese business leaders.
"It will be a moment of truth in Copenhagen whether we will set ourselves on course for disaster by taking a business as usual attitude or we will find the path of sustainable green growth," he said.
"We know the answer. We must take the course of sustainable green growth."
Ban, on a three-day trip to the country, urged Japanese business leaders at an earlier meeting to do more to help the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions, calling their role "extremely, crucially, important."
Japan, the world's fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, announced in June a new target to cut emissions 15 percent from its 2005 level by 2020.
Aso said the new target matches the levels pledged by the European Union and the United States.
On Tuesday, Ban urged Myanmar's ruling junta to release its political prisoners, including opposition leader Suu Kyi.
When he met students at the University of Tokyo yesterday afternoon, he talked of the obstacles he expected to face during his second official visit to the Southeast Asian country.
"First of all, the leaders are not accessible. It's very difficult to communicate with them," he told the campus crowd in a reply to students' questions.
"My forthcoming visit will be in a sense a very challenging one."
Ban is set to arrive in Yangon - Myanmar's commercial capital - the same day Suu Kyi's trial for violating the terms of her house arrest resumes.
The proceedings have drawn outrage from world leaders and human rights groups.
Suu Kyi faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Ban - who is to meet junta leader Senior General Than Shwe - said he would convey the concerns of the international community.
But he did not say whether he would meet Suu Kyi.
Following meetings in Tokyo with Prime Minister Taro Aso, Ban said he wanted Japan to play a leading role at the talks - an expectation that Aso promised to uphold.
"Japan will play an aggressive leadership role at the Copenhagen meeting," Aso said.
Ban, who has put climate change among his top priorities, said he would mobilize "every effort" to reach an agreement at the UN meeting to adopt an ambitious global treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.
"We must seal the deal in Copenhagen in December this year," the UN chief told a group of Japanese business leaders.
"It will be a moment of truth in Copenhagen whether we will set ourselves on course for disaster by taking a business as usual attitude or we will find the path of sustainable green growth," he said.
"We know the answer. We must take the course of sustainable green growth."
Ban, on a three-day trip to the country, urged Japanese business leaders at an earlier meeting to do more to help the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions, calling their role "extremely, crucially, important."
Japan, the world's fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, announced in June a new target to cut emissions 15 percent from its 2005 level by 2020.
Aso said the new target matches the levels pledged by the European Union and the United States.
On Tuesday, Ban urged Myanmar's ruling junta to release its political prisoners, including opposition leader Suu Kyi.
When he met students at the University of Tokyo yesterday afternoon, he talked of the obstacles he expected to face during his second official visit to the Southeast Asian country.
"First of all, the leaders are not accessible. It's very difficult to communicate with them," he told the campus crowd in a reply to students' questions.
"My forthcoming visit will be in a sense a very challenging one."
Ban is set to arrive in Yangon - Myanmar's commercial capital - the same day Suu Kyi's trial for violating the terms of her house arrest resumes.
The proceedings have drawn outrage from world leaders and human rights groups.
Suu Kyi faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
Ban - who is to meet junta leader Senior General Than Shwe - said he would convey the concerns of the international community.
But he did not say whether he would meet Suu Kyi.
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