PRESS CONFERENCE BY NEW UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL ENVOYS ON CLIMATE CHANGE

At a time of unprecedented awareness of the dangers of climate change, nations must adopt a common front to balance economic growth with responsible energy consumption and environmental protection, the three newly appointed United Nations Special Envoys on Climate Change said at a Headquarters press conference today.

They pledged to assist Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in convincing Heads of State and Government, as well as other major stakeholders, to reach consensus on stemming the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, before a proposed high-level meeting in September or the climate change conference scheduled for December in Bali.  “No single policy in any single country is going to be able to solve this issue,” said Ricardo Lagos, former President of Chile, adding: “It is here in this institution that we are going to be able to solve that, or we are going to fail.”  The key was to convince developed and developing countries alike –- with their vastly different levels of per capita energy consumption –- that they could, in fact, engage in cost-effective, responsible consumption without slowing economic expansion.

Echoing that claim, Gro Harlem Brundtland, former Prime Minister of Norway and former Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development, said: “We know that the world is warming up and we know that the issue is to be able to act quickly enough, so that we can avert the types of dramatic consequences that are also irreversible if things are set in motion without sufficient action early enough.”  Climate change was a complicated economic issue that must be addressed through a comprehensive framework by ministers of finance and foreign affairs, as well as by Heads of State and Government.

Han Seung-soo, former Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Korea and President of the fifty-sixth session of the United Nations General Assembly, added that last month’s first-ever Security Council debate on the impact of climate change on peace and security was proof that it had become a security issue as well.  “Although we are not scientists, we are here to help the Secretary-General in gathering information in order for him to make constructive and wise decisions for the future of humanity.”

In response to a question about who the Special Envoys would reach out to, Mr. Lagos said they would contact Heads of State and Government, and representatives of such groups as small island developing States, stressing that all States must take responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions.

Asked whether they would push the Bush Administration to recognize the need to curtail corporate profits in order to save the environment, Dr. Brundtland said that, despite its refusal to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, the United States was actively involved in important reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  The Special Envoys agreed that an attitudinal change was sweeping the United States, whereby Government and business were warming up to the need to address climate change concerns in a responsible manner.

* *** *

For information media • not an official record