Climate change campaigners called yesterday for greater effort in the fight against global warming, saying the world was waiting for a crunch UN conference in Bali to produce a breakthrough.
Prominent figures, including Nobel prize-winning former US vice president Al Gore, are due to arrive on the Indonesian island in the coming days as the climate change summit enters its crucial final week.
"The whole year has been pointing at the Bali process," said John Coequyt, a climate campaigner from Greenpeace. "We have been here for a week now and there is not a lot of difference in discussion, tone and energy from previous summits. Things are going to have to change when ministers get here."
Government delegates from about 190 nations are here for the 11-day summit under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Their goal is to lay the groundwork for a new international initiative that will help combat the threat posed by climate change after the current phase of the existing treaty, the Kyoto Protocol, expires in 2012.
Scientists earlier this year delivered their starkest warning yet -- that without action, global warming could have an irreversible impact on the world, bringing hunger, floods, drought and the extinction of many plants and animal species in its wake.
"I will say [to ministers], the world is waiting -- what is your political answer to what science is telling you?" executive secretary of the UNFCCC Yvo de Boer said.
He has warned that the number of issues for ministers to discuss when they start meeting on Wednesday could clog up talks and said countries should focus on finalizing a timetable for further negotiations up to 2009, when they need to begin ratifying any agreement.
A key question is to what degree rich countries -- which leading experts say are historically responsible for most of the carbon emissions blamed for warming the planet -- should commit to slashing their output.
Europe and developing countries led by China want industrialized nations to set a binding target to cut such emissions by between 25 to 40 percent by 2020 over their 1990 levels.
Canada and Japan are reported to be in favor of fixed targets for booming economies like India and China as well, although de Boer said that was "inconceivable."
New Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will receive a warm welcome when he arrives tomorrow, after reversing his predecessor's policy and ratifying Kyoto in his first official act.
"It means that you sit down with other governments and work out what's necessary for the planet, what's necessary for everyone to contribute, including Australia," Rudd said.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Bangkok yesterday for a three-day official visit that includes talks with Thai leaders on climate change, a UN official said.
Ban will meet Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont today and give a speech on climate change.
Ban will also be granted a royal audience by King Bhumibol Adulyadej later in the day.
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