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SAPPORO, Japan: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon on Monday said that
the United States must take the lead in fighting climate change as
he opened talks with the world’s most powerful leaders.
Speaking to Agence France-Presse on his flight
to the summit in Japan, Ban also said he would meet on the sidelines
with African leaders in a bid to resolve the political crisis in
Zimbabwe.
“I hope the US ultimately should take all this
leadership role. This is what the whole international community
expects of the United States,” Ban said in an interview with
Agence France-Presse on his plane to a Group of Eight summit in
Japan.
The United States is the only major industrial
nation to shun the Kyoto Protocol as it pushes for more commitment
from developing nations such as China and India.
“It is not the issue of who should come first
and who should come later. But it would be desirable that
industrialized countries should lead this by example,” Ban said.
The UN chief said that he spoke about climate
change with Chinese leaders including President Hu Jintao during a
visit last week to Beijing.
“I know that the Chinese and Indians, they are
also committed to this process. I was encouraged by what Chinese
leaders have told me,” Ban said.
The G8—Britain, Canada, France, Germany,
Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States—are set to meet
Wednesday in an extended session with leaders of emerging economies
including Hu and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
But few climate negotiators expect decisions on
the hard part—agreeing on action to take after the Kyoto
Protocol’s obligations expire in 2012—until Bush leaves office
in January.
Both major candidates to succeed US President
George W. Bush have promised tougher action on climate change. A
UN-led conference in Bali in December set a goal of reaching a
post-Kyoto deal by the end of 2009.
“I believe we have technology, we have
financing, we have a consensus view that climate change is
happening. What is largely lacking is political will,” Ban said.
“In this world there is tendency that people
are looking at their domestic challenges first. They are very much
concerned about domestic public opinions,” he said.
“With limited resources, it may be difficult
sometimes for political leaders to look at all these global
issues,” he said. The last G8 summit in Germany agreed that
industrial powers would “consider seriously” at least halving
carbon emissions blamed for global warming by 2050.
But critics say that the agreement is
meaningless without binding targets for what to do in the mid-term
to 2020.
-- AFP
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