DENMARK: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges all countries to do more to reach a climate deal

Record ID: 561807

  • Title: DENMARK: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges all countries to do more to reach a climate deal
  • Date: 17th December 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DELEGATES HOLDING INFORMAL MEETINGS IN MAIN HALL CROWDED CORRIDOR AS PEOPLE ARRIVE FOR MEETINGS
  • Embargoed: 1st January 2010 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Denmark
  • Country: Denmark
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World
  • Reuters ID: LVACD2R6W8A5VRJ8SPKYG9FGRKHC
  • Story Text: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges all countries to do more to reach a climate deal. European Union environment ministers worked towards reaching an agreement as heads of government, including Israeli President Shimon Peres, arrive in Copenhagen hoping to clinch a deal before the summit draws to a close.
    United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday (December 16) encouraged nations attending climate talks in Copenhagen to commit further in a global deal to fight global warming.
    "I would urge all the countries to come out with more ambitious targets," Ban told Reuters in an interview.
    More than 190 countries are meeting in Copenhagen to agree the outlines of a new global deal to combat climate change, hoping to seal a full treaty next year to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.
    Negotiations since Bali have been marred by mistrust between rich and poor nations.
    Finance has emerged as a major stumbling block, despite recent pledges towards a fast-start fund to commit money over the next three years.
    "It's not enough. We need to have medium and long-term financial support up to 2020," Ban said.
    Developing countries want rich nations to be held to their Kyoto obligations, and sign up to a second round of tougher commitments from 2013.
    Industrialised nations want a single track largely because the United States never ratified Kyoto. They fear signing up for a binding new Kyoto while Washington slips away with a less strict regime
    "Ideally speaking, if we can agree a comprehensive deal which can cover all the elements - including the ones in the Kyoto Protocol, that is fine," Ban said.
    "Copenhagen can be a success for a deal that is fair, effective and comprehensive that meets the needs of all the countries, particularly the developing countries," he added.
    Environment ministers from across the European Union met in their delegation offices at the Bella Center, the venue hosting the largest U.N. climate talks in history.
    The formal summit is due to agree a global deal to slow rising temperatures set to cause heat waves, floods, desertification and rising ocean levels.
    Leaders including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe are set to give speeches at the climate meeting, until now dominated by environment ministers.
    Israeli President Shimon Peres was among the leaders arriving in Copenhagen on Wednesday. World leaders have until a main summit on Friday (December 18) to agree a deal under a deadline set at a meeting in Bali.
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