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R/£ UN chief slams global warming doubters
Annan says big developing nations have to act to rein in emissionsNovember 16, 2006 Edition 1
Gerard Wynn and Alister Doyle
United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan has criticised a "frightening lack of leadership" in fighting global warming and urged top emitters, led by the United States and China, to do more to curb greenhouse gases.
Annan, addressing about 70 environment ministers at a November 6 to 17 UN climate conference in Nairobi yesterday, also launched a plan to help Africa to win investments to confront feared climate changes such as floods, droughts and rising sea levels.
"Climate change is not just an environmental issue, as too many people believe. It is an all-encompassing threat," he said.
The talks are seeking ways to extend the Kyoto Protocol, the main UN plan for fighting climate change, beyond 2012.
"While the Kyoto Protocol is a crucial step forward, that step is far too small. And as we consider how to go further still, there remains a frightening lack of leadership," he said.
He told a news conference that his remarks were "not directed at any individual or president" when asked if he was especially targeting the US, the world's biggest source of emissions and which pulled out of Kyoto in 2001.
Still, Annan added: "I think it would be preferable if they signed the Kyoto agreement."
And he also said big developing nations had to act to rein in emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants and cars.
"If we mention some of the bigger developing country economies, India and China, they also have to begin to take this seriously because they are at the stage where they are also beginning to produce greenhouse gases and emissions."
The US is top emitter, ahead of China, Russia and India.
"Global climate change must take its place alongside those threats - conflict, poverty, the proliferation of deadly weapons - that have traditionally monopolised first-order political attention. It is increasingly clear that it will cost far less to cut emissions now than to deal with the consequences later."
Under Kyoto, 35 countries plan to cut emissions of heat-trapping gases to 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
President George Bush has said caps on emissions would harm the US economy and that developing nations were wrongly omitted from goals for 2012. Bush favours big investments in new technologies, like hydrogen or cleaner coal.
Annan, a Ghanaian who will step down from his post on December 31, also announced the plan by six UN agencies, called the Nairobi Framework, to help developing nations, especially in Africa, get more funds to promote clean energies such as wind and hydro power. He urged rich donor nations to contribute.
He said higher temperatures could damage health by spreading diseases, or undermine food production via droughts.
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki urged all to ratify Kyoto.
"Tackling climate change is not a matter of choice; it is an imperative that must be addressed if we are to ensure the continued survival of life on our planet."
At the talks, negotiators reaffirmed a goal of agreeing to an extension of the Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012 "as early as possible" but disappointed environmentalists who had wanted deadlines for reaching accords to spur more action. - Reuters
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