UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday called on world leaders to take urgent action to combat climate change for the sake of “the future of humanity.”
Ban, on a tour of Svalbard, the remote Norwegian-controlled Arctic archipelago, said the region might have no ice within 30 years if present climate trends persisted.
He is trying to drum up support for a comprehensive accord to limit emissions of greenhouse gases at a UN summit in Copenhagen in December. The accord will be a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.
“I would like to draw the attention [of] the world, for urgent action to be taken at Copenhagen ... We do not have much time to lose,” Ban told reporters aboard a Norwegian coastguard vessel.
Ban said he wants leaders “to agree a global deal that is comprehensive, equitable and balanced for the future of humanity and the future of planet Earth.”
The Copenhagen talks aim to agree tough limits on emissions, to keep climate change at a manageable level, and a mechanism by which technology to reduce emissions is efficiently transferred from rich to developing states.
Ban said that Arctic ice was disappearing faster than glaciers in other parts of the world, quickly removing the reflective white shield that prevents the earth’s north and south polar regions from absorbing more of the sun’s energy.
If Arctic sea ice disappears, the darker water underneath will absorb more solar energy, accelerating climate change, scientists say.
“The polar ice caps are the world’s refrigerator, helping to keep us cool because they reflect so much heat,” Lars Haltbrekker, head of environmental group Friends of the Earth Norway, told reporters.
“Some scientists believe that we are already at a tipping point, that the concentration of man-made [heat trapping] gases already in the atmosphere will melt the Arctic sea ice during the summer by 2050,” he said.
The area covered by Arctic sea ice fell to its lowest recorded level in summer 2007, increased slightly last year and will probably be the third-lowest on record this year, scientists say.
Weather permitting, Ban was yesterday to visit a research vessel surveying the polar ice in the Arctic north of Svalbard.
A plan by Switzerland’s right-wing People’s Party to cap the population at 10 million has the backing of almost half the country, according to a poll before an expected vote next year. The party, which has long campaigned against immigration, argues that too-fast population growth is overwhelming housing, transport and public services. The level of support comes despite the government urging voters to reject it, warning that strict curbs would damage the economy and prosperity, as Swiss companies depend on foreign workers. The poll by newspaper group Tamedia/20 Minuten and released yesterday showed that 48 percent of the population plan to vote
PARLIAMENT CHAOS: Police forcibly removed Brazilian Deputy Glauber Braga after he called the legislation part of a ‘coup offensive’ and occupied the speaker’s chair Brazil’s lower house of Congress early yesterday approved a bill that could slash former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s prison sentence for plotting a coup, after efforts by a lawmaker to disrupt the proceedings sparked chaos in parliament. Bolsonaro has been serving a 27-year term since last month after his conviction for a scheme to stop Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from taking office after the 2022 election. Lawmakers had been discussing a bill that would significantly reduce sentences for several crimes, including attempting a coup d’etat — opening up the prospect that Bolsonaro, 70, could have his sentence cut to
A powerful magnitude 7.6 earthquake shook Japan’s northeast region late on Monday, prompting tsunami warnings and orders for residents to evacuate. A tsunami as high as three metres (10 feet) could hit Japan’s northeastern coast after an earthquake with an estimated magnitude of 7.6 occurred offshore at 11:15 p.m. (1415 GMT), the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. Tsunami warnings were issued for the prefectures of Hokkaido, Aomori and Iwate, and a tsunami of 40cm had been observed at Aomori’s Mutsu Ogawara and Hokkaido’s Urakawa ports before midnight, JMA said. The epicentre of the quake was 80 km (50 miles) off the coast of
RELAXED: After talks on Ukraine and trade, the French president met with students while his wife visited pandas, after the pair parted ways with their Chinese counterparts French President Emmanuel Macron concluded his fourth state visit to China yesterday in Chengdu, striking a more relaxed note after tough discussions on Ukraine and trade with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) a day earlier. Far from the imposing Great Hall of the People in Beijing where the two leaders held talks, Xi and China’s first lady, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛), showed Macron and his wife Brigitte around the centuries-old Dujiangyan Dam, a World Heritage Site set against the mountainous landscape of Sichuan Province. Macron was told through an interpreter about the ancient irrigation system, which dates back to the third century
RSS