With talks at the Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen ailing significantly—but by no means hopeless—the UN Secretary-General, Ban-Ki Moon, arrived today announcing: “We do not have another year to negotiate. Nature does not negotiate.”
At the opening of the conference’s high-level segment, Ban announced that the conference is “as momentous as the negotiations that created our great United Nations… from the ashes of war more than 60 years ago […] Once again, we are on the cusp of history.”
He encouraged nations to break current deadlocks by putting aside any “unreasonable” demands.
“Time is running out. There is no time left for posturing or blaming. Every country must do its part to seal a deal in Copenhagen,” Ban said urging compromise. “No one will get everything they want in this negotiation. But if we work together and get a deal, everyone will get what they need,” he said, perhaps unaware he was echoing a famous Rolling Stones song.
Warning that “ambition levels are not sufficient”, he said that more needed to be done to address the “legitimate concerns” of the world’s most vulnerable nations to climate change.
Ban added that he saw hope in the fact that over 130 heads of government (representing nearly 70 percent of the conference’s total nations) are poised to show-up at Copenhagen by Friday. This was “clear proof that climate change has risen to the top of the global agenda.”
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