UN chief to head global warming push

By Fiona Harvey in London and Joshua Chaffin in Brussels
Published: January 26 2009 21:08

Ban Ki-moon will spearhead a United Nations push to tackle climate change and call an unprecedented meeting of world leaders to take a new look at the issue.
Building on the momentum of the inauguration of Barack Obama as US president, the UN secretary-general hopes to convene a meeting of 30 to 40 heads of state in February or March to draw up a new framework for tackling the issue.

Last year, Mr Ban tried to convene the world’s heads of state to discuss climate change on the fringes of the UN general assembly, but was snubbed by George W Bush, the then US president.
This year will be crucial for global warming, with a series of tense meetings leading up to a conference in Copenhagen in December which the UN has set as the deadline for forging an agreement to succeed the Kyoto protocol, the main provisions of which expire in 2012.
Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN framework convention on climate change and the UN official charged with bringing this year’s talks to a successful conclusion, said it was time for leaders to take action. “I am amazed on a weekly basis that people I thought were leaders are calling for leadership [on climate change],” he said.
Mr Obama’s stated determination to take action on global warming was “incredibly encouraging”, he said. “He’s following through and delivering on what he promised in the course of the campaign.”
But he said any new agreement at Copenhagen would be very different to the Kyoto protocol, which was signed by the US in 1997 but never ratified. “The Kyoto protocol is so demonised in the US, I don’t see that as a home for moving forward.”
A replacement agreement would have to include stringent targets on emissions cuts by 2020 from developed country governments, he insisted, as well as commitments on emissions curbs, falling short of actual cuts, from poor countries. It must also contain a mechanism for financing emissions cuts in the developing world, and governance structures determining how poor countries can spend the funds, according to Mr de Boer.
The UN issued its call as the European Union prepared to unveil on Tuesday its proposals for an international agreement to fight global warming. A draft of the EU proposal calls for €175bn ($230bn, £165bn) in extra investment by 2020 to help reduce emissions, as well as tens of billions of euros to help poorer countries cope with the consequences of even modest warming.
The proposal acknowledges that developed nations will have to shoulder much of the financial burden for such investments, more than half of which will be made in developing countries.
● Global warming can be held in check at reasonable cost, but doing so would require an urgent effort involving all nations and industrial sectors, according to a new McKinsey report, writes Joshua Chaffin.
The consultancy’s study, Pathways to a Global Carbon Economy, says greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by 70 per cent by 2030 – sufficient to hold increases in warming below 2°C and avoid irreversible environmental damage.
The biggest and most cost-effective savings would come from improving energy efficiency for vehicles, buildings and industrial equipment, it says. These would account for about 14 giga-tonnes of emissions savings or 40 per cent of the total.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009