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Annan Calls on US to Join Global Efforts Combating Climate Change
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Sunday urged the United States, the world's leading greenhouse gases emitter, to join the international community in reducing emissions, seeing it important to the globe's tomorrow.
"Indeed, there is concern throughout the world about the decision of the new (U.S.) administration to oppose the (Kyoto) Protocol," Annan said in his speech at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.
"Today we face very real danger that the hard-won global gains in combating climate change will experience a grievous setback. Developing countries would be left most vulnerable, even though they are the least responsible for global warming," the U.N. chief said, calling the combat the greatest global challenge facing the next generation.
He hoped that developed nations will show their seriousness in committing themselves to dealing with global warming in negotiations to be resumed in Bonn in July.
The U.N.-sponsored climate talks to cut greenhouse gases broke down in The Hague in November 2000 because of a dispute over the forest's role in absorbing carbon dioxide and the Bonn talks are aimed at resolving a number of remaining issues for the Kyoto Protocol's implementation.
The Kyoto pact agreed in 1997 is projected to reduce industrialized countries' greenhouse gases emissions by an average of 5.2 percent during 2008-2012 from their 1990 levels.
With 5 percent of world population and accounting for 25 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, the U.S. triggered a world outcry in March by rejecting the international treaty.
The Bush administration said it would not bear the high costs from choosing a less pollutant energy and that it would not join the international move unless developing countries join developed countries' ranks in doing so.
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