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Climate Change - World Action
UN chief, NY mayor urge world action on climate change
UNITED NATIONS — New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg joined UN chief Ban Ki-moon here Monday in galvanizing world action to roll back climate change, an issue he described as "just as important" as nuclear proliferation and terrorism.
"We are damaging our planet. Nobody knows at what rate but at any rate it is not good," Bloomberg told reporters after addressing a UN General Assembly debate on the impact of global warming.
"We have to do something about it and we have to do it now," he added.
Calling climate change "perhaps one of the most important issues facing us," Bloomberg said: "This is just as important as stopping nuclear proliferation. This is just as important as stopping terrorism."
"Terrorists kill people, weapons of mass destruction have the potential to kill enormous numbers of people. Global warming long-term has the potential to kill everybody," the New York mayor said.
At the opening of a two-day meeting, Ban underscored the need to "encourage new kinds of cleaner technologies, industries and jobs and integrate climate change risks into national policies and practices."
He reminded participants of the achievements made at last December's Bali conference in Indonesia, where agreement was reached on setting a 2009 deadline for a landmark new treaty to cut global-warming greenhouse gases once the current Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.
"Developed countries need to take a clear lead, but success is possible only if all countries act," the UN chief said.
"The more ambitious the commitments by developed countries, the more actions we can expect from developing countries," he said. "The more developing countries engage, the more ambitiously the developed countries will commit."
British tycoon Richard Branson, president of the Virgin Atlantic airline called for "a powerful partnership that helps to scale up the best innovation by bringing together business leaders, economists, environmental groups and other expert organizations to tackle the war against global warming."
He insisted that this was indeed "a war ... the first war that truly threatens almost all human life -- a war that to win we must all fight together."
And he said that Virgin was doing its part by putting up a 25 million-dollar (17.25 million-euro) prize to "encourage scientists and inventors to put their mind to it.
"Today, we would like to urge the 20 wealthiest governments to match us in this endeavor so we can make the largest scientific price ever: a half a billion-dollar prize," Branson told the meeting.
Bloomberg said that in the United States, "cities and states have stepped up to the plate where the government has been unwilling to do so."
In New York City, he cited a campaign to "reduce our carbon footprint," for instance by converting taxis to fuel-saving hybrids over the next five years, a move which he said would reduce the city's entire carbon footprint by half of one percent.
He also cited a drive to plant one million trees throughout the city over the next 10 years, a move which "will not only capture carbon dioxide, but also clean the air, cool our streets, reduce street flooding and raise property values."
Bloomberg also highlighted efforts to make the city's buildings environmentally friendly -- "not just to cut carbon emissions, but also because it will allow us to redirect billions of dollars a year it now takes to heat and cool these buildings, often inefficiently, to better purposes."
And he unveiled a long-term initiative to reduce consumption of tropical hardwoods by city agencies.
In the short-term, the plan aims to cut tropical hardwood use by 20 percent by eliminating these woods from construction and maintenance of park benches, and piloting alternative materials for existing boardwalks.
"Setting serious carbon targets will not hamper growth," Bloomberg said.
"If the US and the developing nations make such commitments, then the prospects for a new international global warming accord improve greatly."
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