USE MOMENTUM FROM NEW YORK CLIMATE SUMMIT TO HELP ‘SEAL THE DEAL’

IN COPENHAGEN, SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES PACIFIC LEADERS FORUM

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message to the Pacific Leaders Forum in Cairns, Australia, delivered by Supachai Panitchpakdi, Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, today, 5 August:

It is a pleasure to send greetings to the Pacific leaders and others gathered for this forum.  I thank Prime Minister Rudd and the people of Australia for hosting this important regional event.  And I look forward to continuing our shared efforts to address the serious, multiple global challenges we face.

Climate change is at the top of that agenda.  I applaud your region’s role in the negotiations that led to the adoption by the General Assembly of its landmark resolution on climate change and its implications for security.  I will now count on you to show similarly dynamic engagement in sealing the deal at Copenhagen in December.

Towards that end, I urge you to attend the climate summit that I will be convening next month in New York, and use that gathering to create the political momentum we need for an agreement.  United Nations agencies, for their part, will continue to work with you -- including through the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme -- to address the negative consequences of climate change that are already being experienced, from extreme weather to environmental degradation.  Mitigation and adaptation must both be our urgent priorities.

The global economic and financial crisis is also foremost in our minds.  The full repercussions have yet to be felt, but already we know we must do our utmost to prevent the unfavourable economic climate from undermining our efforts to fight climate change and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.  For the Pacific, the downturn is likely to hit hard, limiting resources for development, leading to job losses and a decline in exports and creating a risk of instability.  The United Nations will continue to speak up for the poorest and most vulnerable members of the human family.  And as part of the United Nations system’s wide-ranging response to the crisis, we are establishing a global impact and vulnerability alert system to better track the impact of the crisis -- and thereby better respond.

The United Nations is strongly committed to its partnerships with the Pacific Island Forum and with the individual countries of the region.  And I am determined to ensure that the United Nations delivers as one, providing coherent, effective support to further your own, nationally driven work for development, human rights and peace.

I look forward to broadening our cooperation and offer you my best wishes for a successful forum.

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For information media • not an official record