Nations must look beyond self interests to ensure successful climate deal – UN official

‘Sealing the deal’ on a successful new climate change pact at December’s Copenhagen conference will require nations to look beyond their own interests since “significant differences remain,” a top United Nations official said today as the latest round of negotiations wrapped up.

“A will has emerged in Bangkok to build the architecture to rapidly implement climate action,” said Yvo de Boer, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), at the end of the two-week talks in the Thai capital attended by some 4,000 people.

But he emphasized that “it is time now to step back from self interest and let the common interest prevail.”

Although progress was made on the issues of adaptation, technology transfer, capacity-building and forests, not many advances were made on mid-term emission reduction targets for industrialized and on financing for developing countries to cur their emissions and adapt to climate change, the official noted.

Mr. de Boer called on developed nations to follow the lead of Norway, which announced a minus 40 per cent reduction target today.

The Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has found that to stave off the worst effects of climate change, industrialized countries must slash emissions by 25 to 40 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020 and global emissions must be halved by 2050.

The last round of negotiations will be held next month in Barcelona, Spain, ahead of the Copenhagen conference, which will take place from 7-18 December.

The UNFCCC head today called for “bold leadership” in the world’s capital to allow negotiators to complete their work.

The Bangkok talks came shortly after last month’s high-level summit, the largest ever on climate change, which was convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at UN Headquarters in New York.

That event drew some 100 heads of State and government who issued a call for a comprehensive pact to be reached in Copenhagen. The leaders also stressed the need to boost action to help the world’s most vulnerable and poorest adapt to global warming, as well as the importance of industrialized countries agreeing on ambitious emissions reduction targets.

“Your words have been heard around the world. Let your actions now be seen. There is little time left. The opportunity and responsibility to avoid catastrophic climate change is in your hands,” Mr. Ban said at the end of the summit, which he convened in a bid to mobilize political will ahead of the Copenhagen meeting.