KENYA: United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan has contrasted the "frightening lack of leadership" shown in dealing with the global threat of climate change with the high level of political attention given to the "proliferation of deadly weapons".
Addressing the the UN Climate Change Summit in Nairobi, he referred obliquely to the principal reason given by President George W. Bush in 2001 for spurning the Kyoto Protocol, declaring: "Let no one say we cannot afford to act."
In his last major speech to a UN conference before leaving office, Mr Annan told delegates representing some 180 countries which subscribed to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change: "Let us start being more politically courageous."
Following publication of the British government's recent Stern review, the secretary general said it was "increasingly clear it will cost far less to cut [ greenhouse gas] emissions now than to deal with the consequences later".
"Global climate change must take its place alongside the threats of conflict, poverty and the proliferation of deadly weapons that have traditionally monopolised first-order political attention. The UN offers the tools the world needs to respond," Mr Annan said.
He also announced a new plan, the "Nairobi Framework", under which six UN agencies would work together to help developing countries, "especially in Africa", to participate in the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).
The CDM permits developed countries, which have emission targets under the Kyoto Protocol, to invest in projects in developing countries that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thus gaining tradeable credits against their own emissions.
The protocol, adopted in 1997, requires 35 developed countries to reduce their emissions by an average of 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012. The US and Australia rejected it on the grounds of economic self-interest.
Asked about their position, Mr Annan said both countries "say they will take steps to fight climate change. It would be preferable if they did sign, because they have a responsibility to their own citizens and the rest of the world to curb emissions."
However, the secretary general made it clear to delegates that Kyoto, although a "crucial" first step towards cutting emissions, was "not a magic bullet" to deal with the "all-encompassing threat" of climate change.
Mr Annan delivered his speech at the opening session of the Nairobi summit's three-day "high-level segment", which involves environment ministers from some 100 countries, with senior officials representing others.
Most of the discussions are being held behind closed doors, and one of the main strands involves looking beyond 2012, when much deeper cuts in emissions will be needed if the world is to avoid the worst consequences of climate change.
The conference president, Kenyan environment minister Kivutha Kibwana, said good progress was being made on aid for developing countries, but "rigid positions" on other issues "could put at risk an overall successful outcome".
In particular, he alluded to the importance of the agreement on a review of the Kyoto Protocol and on the proposal put forward by Russia on a procedure for other countries to take on voluntary commitments under the protocol.
In a blunt message to ministers, the Climate Action Network said "the gorilla sitting in the middle of your table that many do not want to publicly acknowledge" was the need to set a deadline to negotiate a deal on what happens after 2012. Catherine Pearce, of Friends of the Earth International, said ministers must "show the world that there is a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol". But many fear that this won't happen until a new US president takes over in 2009.
The urgency of reaching a global agreement has been underlined by indications that the fourth assessment by the UN's Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change, due next February, will offer much stronger evidence of the risks involved.
Rajendra K Pachauri, the Indian scientist who chairs the 2,000-member panel, told the Associated Press that the latest assessment could provide "just the right impetus to get the negotiations going in a more purposeful way". The assessment is likely to show that global temperatures have risen to levels not seen in at least 12,000 years, that Greenland's ice-sheet is melting at a "dramatic" rate and that the levels of the oceans are rising by about two millimetres a year.