CALL TO ‘SEAL THE DEAL’: Ban Ki Moon at Copenhagen

TIME TO SEAL THE DEAL

Three days of action from ministers are needed to “seal a deal” at the climate talks in Copenhagen, according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Speaking at the opening of the high-level segment, he told delegates they had the chance to change history. But governments remain deadlocked on many key issues, including the size of emission targets, finance, and verification of emission curbs.

Demonstrations are expected on Wednesday as ministers convene. Campaign groups are talking of mounting actions inside and outside the conference centre. There is anger about the glacial progress of some segments of the talks and about logistical problems that have seen most people from NGOs unable to enter the venue.

Mr Ban told delegates there was still an “enormous amount of work to be done” if a deal was to be achieved. “For three years, I have sought to bring world leaders to the table,” he said. “No-one will get everything they want; but if we work together, then everyone will get what they need.”

Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told ministers they must make this conference “a decisive moment of change”. “Climate change is higher on the agenda than ever before,” he said. “And so it should be; the grim projections from science grow more alarming each day and already many face the dire consequences of global warming.”

Different visions of what the science implies are, though, the cause of one of the most fundamental fault lines running between delegations here – what figure should be adopted as the target for limiting the global average temperature rise since pre-industrial times.