UN News Centre
8 July 2008 –
Not
only is it more pressing than ever, but it is now more achievable than
ever for the international community to reach agreement on how to
combat climate change, Srgjan Kerim, President of the United Nations
General Assembly, said today.
“To achieve this we need to build on our previous work and strengthen
the ability of the UN system to assist vulnerable countries build their
capacity and capability to adapt, while ensuring that the system works
together more coherently to deliver more than the sum of its parts,” he
told a special one-day Assembly debate on the issue.
The head of the 192-member body also called for stepped up efforts to
transfer technology to developing countries that cannot otherwise
afford it, as well as to ensure sufficient funding to help the neediest.
“We have the technological capability and scientific know-how,” he
said, but warned that “a global consensus can only be secured if all
countries can share in the benefits from action to address it – in
particular the most vulnerable countries.”
Emphasizing that addressing global warming is intrinsically linked to
sustainable development, the President also voiced concern over the
impact of climate change on least developed countries (LDCs),
landlocked developing countries (LLDCs) and small island developing
states (SIDS).
Also addressing the debate, Deputy Secretary-General Asha-Rose Migiro
underscored the “particularly immediate and severe” burden placed on
the poor by climate change.
Citing the UN’s Human Development Report, she noted that 1 in 19 people
in developing countries will likely feel the impact of global warming,
compared to only 1 in 1,500 in the 30 industrialized and market-economy
countries that make up the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD).
Ms. Migiro pointed out that the most vulnerable risk being flooded out
of their homes, face greater health risks and find access to water
impeded by climate change.
“These trends would be alarming enough individually, but taken together
they amount to a development crisis – unless action is taken on a
war-footing, the world will not only miss the Millennium Development
Goals, we will see existing development gains unravel as well,” she
said, referring to the eight anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline.
Today’s debate was the third one on climate change convened by Mr. Kerim during the Assembly’s 62nd session.
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