New York, 5 September
2007 - Madame President, Madame Deputy Secretary
General, my colleague Under Secretary General
Akasaka, excellencies, permanent representatives
and missions, ladies and gentlemen, dear
colleagues
In some ways I just have to put my speech
away because the deputy secretary general
essentially said everything I was going
to say. I think this is best proof that
climate change has taken centre stage in
the United Nations and I want to thank you
for the speech you have just delivered.
2007 is a remarkable year—a remarkable
year both in terms of the issue of climate
change but also in terms of a number of
other key points.
For the first time in the history of the
planet we are confronted with a phenomenon,
an environmental change phenomenon that
binds us together in a way that has never
been witnessed before.
Whether you are rich or poor; whether you
are northern or southern; small-island or
large land-locked nation; farmer or industrialist-
climate change or global warming with all
its consequences is a challenge to your
existence, to your life, to your dreams
about the future and the dreams of our children.
No one can escape from climate change and
more importantly we cannot solve it unless
everyone on this planet joins forces. I
do not believe we have had ever in the history
of human kind such a challenge and it is
a challenge that in many ways has taken
a remarkably long time as Under-Secretary-General
for Communications and Public Information,
Kiyotaka Akasaka, has just noted.
The interesting thing that happened in
2007 is that a scientific report, something
that most of us would struggle ever picking
up and reading, has taken centre stage.
A report—perhaps the most important report
that this institution has facilitated in
recent years—that has galvanized public
attention across all nations, sectors and
parts of our society to an extent that even
I would not have believed possible just
a year ago.
I think what happened in 2007 is that the
peoples of the world finally said to their
government leaders and business leaders
"what are you doing about this issue
of climate change? You can no longer simply
sit back. We may not understand the science
and the economics fully but we are beginning
to see what this means by the data and the
science being presented to us. So what on
earth are you doing about it? Because what
you seem to be doing simply isn't enough".
Ladies and gentlemen, that is why suddenly
we are discussing climate change in a totally
different context - politically, economically,
regionally and nationally.
It is still a discussion that is driven
largely by the threat of global warming
and what it implies for all of us in our
different lives. But it is more than that.
This is an issue - a phenomenon - of change
of such gravity and such far reaching consequences,
that it touches on probably all the aspects
of the work represented in this hall.
In that sense it is not just another issue
but I believe it is the transformative issue
of the early part of the century. Transformative
in a number of ways: Transformative in that
it challenges a century of environment verses
economics and of economy versus the planet.
In other words it stands on its head all
that we have been taught throughout the
20th century.
Madam President, you talked earlier about
the fact that economic growth is not a contradiction
to sustainable growth.
Climate change is starting to bridge that
intellectual divide - ecologists are becoming
more informed economists and economists
are becoming more intelligent environmentalists.
It is also challenging other notions including
a fundamental paradigm that I know is very
dear to all of you: namely equity.
Colleagues, climate change is a fundamental
challenge to notions of global equity, inter-generational
equity and equity between rich and poor.
It questions the premise upon which some
of our societies have built their social
and political models over the centuries.
We used to think that the difference between
being poor and rich was one of deprivation
or one of luxury. However if you look at
the last few weeks, extreme weather events
have been causing floods across many parts
of the world - from the UK to Mauritania
to China and Bangladesh and India to name
just a few.
These events also underline that it is
the poor who are in the front line of bearing
the consequences of these kinds of extreme
weather events which are consistent with
the science of climate change.
So in a very real sense, climate change
threatens virtually every aspect of your
work whether you are in the field of health,
in the field of rural development, in the
field of gender or in the field of poverty
alleviation.
It also threatens the UN's entire body
of work and the targets we have set ourselves
under the Millennium Development Goals.
There are still some out there who argue
that we've always had extreme weather events,
we have lived through centuries in which
things change and that is how this planet
works.
First of all I think we now have enough
evidence to show that the parameters of
change are different. We also now live on
a planet with almost 6.5 billion people.
We have an infra-structure that we simply
cannot afford to lose or risk in a way that
some people argue we could have done when
we were just a billion people 300 years
ago.
For example climate change could threaten
almost one third of Africa's coastal infra-structure
by the end of this simply as a result of
sea level rise.
Just a few months ago in Italy there was
grave concern that power stations would
have to be switched off. This was because
snow fall was so low in the Alps there were
concerns that there would be insufficient
melt waters to sustain river flows and thus
power station cooling systems.
If you want to understand the magnitude
and complexity of climate change you do
not have to look 50 years down the line—even
this year's reports by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change have already been
overtaken.
Ladies and gentlemen in Greenland we have
just learnt that they have been growing
potatoes for 5 years. The director general
of agriculture, only a few days ago in a
television interview, was predicting that
in 2 – 3 years strawberries will be grown
in Greenland.
For Greenland that is a good thing he said
and he is perhaps right. Yes, there may
be some areas where change could be interpreted
as positive if ice melts, land becomes available
and you can grow crops. But these examples
are almost isolated ones in an otherwise
unbearably serious set of consequences that
we now know about.
Let me touch briefly on two other aspects.
Climate change is often associated with
essentially a loss of the way of life as
we know it today and in the richer countries
this is interpreted as a loss of the comforts
we have come to know.
Combating climate change is also associated
with a high price and one that we are told
we cannot afford to pay. But I am still
struck by the work that both Nicholas Stern
and the IPCC have done and which the Deputy
Secretary-General has just mentioned.
Work perhaps crystallized in one figure—that
figure is that it may only require one,
one thousandth, of our GDP over 30 years
to avoid the sobering consequences of unchecked
climate change.
Faced with such a calculation, one wonders
why there is still debate around climate
change being too costly to address.
I think there are two fundamental reasons
here. One is that for those who argue the
future in terms of their current economy
and also their current economic interests
- be it a business that has developed technology
that sells well today but will not sell
tomorrow in a low carbon economy - clearly
transition bears a price.
So the costs of adapting and also mitigating
climate change, do not simply affect everyone
equally—not everyone will pay the equivalent
of 0.1 per cent of global GDP.
That means that we need to find ways in
which we can make the transformation to
a low carbon economy not only happen, but
happen in an equitable way. You cannot simply
argue that an economy like Germany faces
the same challenges as Brazil or Kenya or
Indonesia or China.
This represents the challenge for international
cooperation in the 21st century and is also
at the heart of the difficulties we are
facing in terms of the UN Framework Convention
on Climate Change and the debates and discussions
about what will follow the current Kyoto
protocol.
But there is another dimension that I find
is often under played. This is the fact
that responding to climate change and moving
towards a transformed low-carbon economy
is not just a cost factor. If you use less
fuel you will have a direct economic benefit,
you also have less pollution and you will
have less health problems.
For example we know that today, in a nation
like China, a terrible price of development
is being paid by hundreds of thousands of
people—literally with their lives - as a
result of air pollution.
Meanwhile, in adapting and mitigating climate
change we can also address in part the costs
of development that in the past have neglected
the price that development exacts on human
beings let alone on nature and nature-based
assets.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I mentioned air pollution in China but
there is another side to China's story which
makes me optimistic. China faces perhaps
some of the greatest environmental problems
a nation has ever faced.
But there is also an engagement and an
interest to address those problems at the
highest level of government—an engagement
and an interest that I would sometimes wish
you could see mirrored in other countries
across the globe.
So ladies and gentlemen, climate change
is a challenge in terms of adaptation and
mitigation but its also an opportunity and
this is where what UNEP does is to me very
important.
Our institution, among its many activities,
produces every year an assessment of investments
in renewable energy—the latest report shows
that last year the world exceeded the figure
of 100 billion dollars - a 40% increase
in investment in the renewable energy sector.
Why is it that it took so long for people
to suddenly recognize the possibilities
that we actually have? How can a country
like Germany move from being a non-entity
in renewable energy sector in the 11000s
to become the world's number one wind power
electricity producer in the planet in just
7 – 8 years?
How did a country like Brazil manage to
create one of the cleaner electricity matrixes
on the planet?
It is because public policy, long term development
planning and commitment by government leaders
to facilitate transitions make a big difference.
A country like Denmark has managed to grow
by over 70% in GDP terms over the last 25
years. It has done so without using one
additional kilowatt of electricity than
it use 25 years ago.
So economic growth, energy efficiency,
sustainability are not contradictions. In
fact I believe they hold the key at the
beginning of the 21 century to making our
economies more viable and to enable economic
growth to take place.
Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, let
me end by referring to one more issue that
preoccupies me—an issue that I think you
in this hall here today should take to heart.
The role of the United Nations is often
much maligned, criticized and permanently
faulted for the woes of the world.
In the domain of climate change, I think
the United Nations has every reason to say
here is proof of why this institution -
or at least the idea of this institution
- at the beginning of the 21st Century is
far from redundant and more relevant than
it has ever been before.
On the issue of climate change, it was
the United Nations that picked up the science
of the world researchers.
It was the UN, and through the context
of UNEP and many of my predecessors, that
climate change found its way into the Inter-governmental
arena even when it was only just being registered
and still laughed at or smiled at in the
mainstream view.
It was the United Nations that brought
together a convention called UN Framework
Convention on Climate Change.
It was with colleagues at the UN's World
Meteorological Organisation that UNEP facilitated
the establishment of the IPCC - - a most
extra-ordinary process involving more than
2000 scientists involved in reviewing the
world's science.
The IPCC has taken an issue from being
a contested ideological - and often denied
- phenomenon to being a universally accepted
fact and a basis for acting as a global
community in 2007.
That is the United Nations at work. In
just a few months that challenge will be
once again, in crystal clear terms, on the
tables of the world's capitals when the
conference of the parties to the UNFCCC
meet in Bali.
We have reached a moment where, if we do
not find an answer of what together we do
after 2012, I wonder what government leader
will be able to stand before his/her peoples
and explain the alternatives. There is simply
no alternative to collective, urgent, global
action.
I have been Executive Director of UNEP
for just over a year and please let me stress
that I am not in any way naive nor am I
becoming too embedded in the system not
to recognize how much is wrong with our
system.
But quite frankly, the things that are
wrong in our system have to do with almost
minor issues when you compare them to the
bigger problem.
Yes we have bureaucracy, we have dysfunctionality
and we have competition amongst entities.
In many ways the system sets us up to compete
amongst each other through the funding mechanisms
that operate in this world.
But these are the kinds of views of those
who come later—of those who have the luxury
to criticize those who went before and had
to create the system often through very
difficult political compromises.
However there is another reality—every
day in this family of institutions, hundreds
of thousands of people stay alive because
we in the United Nations are empowered by
the member states to go out there and feed
people, protect them, keep them alive and
eradicate diseases.
These can often be abstract notions within
the debates and papers held and presented
here in these halls and conference rooms.
However if you are a refugee today in a
camp, or you are a child who receives a
meal in a school, you know that this institution
often makes a difference between life and
death.
These are truths that we tend to forget
when we discuss, let's say, the greater
complexities here at the UN.
So I want to appeal to you all at this
point in time, where there are few who actually
stand up for the UN, to think long and hard.
It is very easy to criticize, it is very
easy to find mistakes and we all know they
happen every day here as they happen in
every other institution and body on this
planet. But I sometimes feel that the world
is almost at a point where it is losing
its perspective on the United Nations.
So I appeal to you as representatives of
civil societies - who care about the UN,
who know more about it probably more than
other citizens but who also understand the
realities - -to go back to our societies,
our nations and our communities.
Ladies and gentlemen, make people aware
that they are in danger of losing some of
the greatest assets that they will need
if we are to live together as a community
of nations and peoples in the 21st century.
Make this theme part of the spirit of this
discussion here in New York this week. Thank
you
Ozone Treaty's Role in Combating Climate
Change Tops Environment Ministers Meeting
in Canada
Two Decades of Success and Future Years
of Achievement Take Centre Stage at 20th
Anniversary Celebrations of Montreal Protocol
Nairobi/Montreal, 14 September 2007 - An
accelerated freeze and phase-out of hydrochlorofluorocarbons
(HCFCs), chemicals that were used to replace
more ozone-damaging substances known as
CFCs, is to be considered by governments
at an international meeting in Montreal,
Canada.
New science and technical assessments indicate
that speeding up a freeze and phase-out
of HCFCs and their related by-products could
not only assist in the recovery of the ozone
layer.
An acceleration could also play an important
role in addressing another key environmental
challenge?namely climate change.
A record nine countries-developed and developing-
have submitted six different proposals which
will be on the table when up to 191 parties
or governments meet in the Canadian city
between 17 and 21 September. The negotiations
will occur during the 20th Anniversary celebration
of the world's ozone treaty, the Montreal
Protocol.
The Protocol was negotiated in response
to growing international concern over the
emergence of a hole in the ozone layer over
Antarctica from the use of ozone-depleting
chemicals in products from hair sprays to
fire fighting equipment.
HCFCs, promoted over a decade ago as less
damaging replacements for the older CFCs,
have now become widespread in products such
as refrigeration systems, air conditioning
units and foams.
Under the Montreal Protocol, the United
Nations ozone layer protection treaty which
was adopted in 1987, use of HCFCs is set
to cease in developed countries in 2030
and in developing ones in 2040.
However, scientists and many governments
are now studying a range of options for
a more rapid freeze on consumption and production
of these replacements and the bringing forward
of the final phase-out by around 10 years.
It follows research indicating that acceleration
could, over the coming decades deliver cumulative
emission reductions over the equivalent
to perhaps 18 to 25 billion metric tonnes
of carbon dioxide (18 gigatones-25 gigatonnes)
depending on the success of governments
in encouraging new ozone and climate-friendly
alternatives.
Annually, it could represent a cut equal
to over 3.5 per cent of all the world's
current greenhouse emissions.
In contrast the Kyoto Protocol, the main
greenhouse gas emission reduction treaty,
was agreed with the aim of reducing developed
country emissions by just over five per
cent by 2012.
The final benefits of an accelerated freeze
and phase-out of HCFCs may prove to be even
higher than the 18 to 25 billion metric
tonnes, according to a just-released report
from the Montreal Protocol's Technology
and Economic Assessment Panel that is designed
to inform the negotiations at the international
meeting in Canada.
Close to the equivalent of 38 billion tonnes
(38 gigatonnes) of carbon dioxide if the
acceleration is accompanied by the recovery
and destruction of old equipment and insulating
foam and improvements in energy efficiency,
says the Panel.
For example a faster switch to alternatives
to HCFCs may well stimulate technological
innovation including a more rapid introduction
of energy efficient equipment that in turn
will assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions
even further.
The ozone layer and human health too will
benefit. Under some of the accelerated phase-out
scenarios, ozone levels could return to
healthy pre-1980 levels a few years earlier
than current scientific predictions.
Benefits would include a reduction in skin
cancer, cataracts, and harm to the human
immune system alongside reduced damage to
agricultural and natural ecosystems.
Achim Steiner, UN Undersecretary General
and Executive Director of the UN Environment
Programme (UNEP) which is responsible for
the Montreal Protocol, said: "The Montreal
Protocol is without doubt one of the most
successful multilateral treaties ever and
I look forward to celebrating, in mid-September,
two decades of achievement in the Canadian
city where it was born".
"The phase out of CFCs has not only
put the ozone layer on the road to recovery.
New research, published in March this year
by Dutch and American scientists, also shows
that the CFC phase-out has assisted in combating
climate change. But the treaty's success
story is far from over with new and wide
ranging chapters still to be written. Indeed
if governments adopt accelerated action
on HCFCs, we can look forward to not only
a faster recovery of the ozone layer, but
a further important contribution to the
climate change challenge," he said.
Mr Steiner added: "In doing so the
treaty will also underline the often overlooked
fact that multilateral environment agreements
like the Montreal Protocol and the Kyoto
Protocol have far wider environmental, social
and economic benefits than perhaps are fully
recognized when they are initially agreed.
In short, treaties working together can
do far more, more rapidly and at a lower
cost".
The Honourable John Baird, Canada's Environment
Minister, said "The original Montreal
Protocol stands as a model of the tremendous
results that can be achieved when the international
community works together to tackle environmental
problems. As the proud host country of this
meeting, Canada believes that more can be
done, and so we support an accelerated phase
out of HCFCs. We will work with the countries
who have signed the protocol to help make
this happen, and we will be pushing the
international community to build on the
success story that began here 20 years ago."
The meeting comes in advance of a Heads
of State event on climate change being hosted
by the UN Secretary General, Mr Ban Ki-Moon.
This event, scheduled to take place at
UN Headquarters in New York on 24 September,
is aimed at building consensus at the highest
level on the need for climate action and
a global emission reduction agreement to
come into force when the Kyoto Protocol
expires in five years time.
An accelerated freeze and phase out of
HCFCs might offer governments 'quick wins'
in addressing climate change and build confidence
that a new international regime on greenhouse
gas emissions can be agreed before the Kyoto
Protocol expires in 2012, UNEP suggests.
Notes to Editors
Meeting of the Parties
The main meeting of the Parties to the Montreal
Protocol on Substance that Deplete the Ozone
Layer will run from 17 September to 21 September
at the Palais de Congres de Montreal, 5th
Floor, 159 Rue Saint-Antoine Ouest.
The programme and other related information
including press and public information materials
can be accessed at http://ozone.unep.org/Meeting_Documents/mop/19mop/19mop-info.shtml
A press conference is scheduled for 11.15
until 12.00 noon that day (timing and venue
will be confirmed nearer the day).
A closing press conference is planned for
21 September. (time to be confirmed).
20th Anniversary Celebrations
UNEP and the Government of Canada are using
the occasion to celebrate the treaty's 20th
anniversary which falls on 16 September?also
the International Day for the Preservation
of the Ozone Layer and the date when, in
1987, the treaty was adopted by governments.
A special seminar, covering the history
and evolution of the Montreal Protocol,
will take place on the day. The seminar
will also host awards honouring key individuals
from around the world whose commitment to
the success of the Montreal Protocol will
be recognized.
Prizes will also be given for Public Awareness,
Best Poster, Best Paper and Best Article
in respect to the ozone and the Montreal
Protocol.
Meanwhile, the US Environmental Protection
Agency and the Alliance for Responsible
Atmospheric Policy will host another awards
ceremony to present the 2007 Best-of-the-Best
Stratospheric Ozone Protection Awards.
This will take place on the evening of
19 September at the Hotel Delta Centre-Ville,
Montreal. www.epa.gov/ozone/awards/index.html
On 16 September, life-size Ozzy and Zoe
Ozone mascots will be present at the Biosphere
in Montreal, and afterwards at the Palais
de Congres de Montreal. These two cartoon
stars are the public face of UNEP's global
campaign under the Multilateral Fund to
raise and sustain awareness about ozone
layer depletion and the Montreal Protocol.
On the same day and at the same venue,
UNEP Division of Technology, Industry and
Economics OzonAction Branch and Environment
Canada will launch an Ozzy Ozone board game.
This game in a form of "snakes and
ladders" will be printed on large-size
canvas at the Biosphere. As much informative
as fun, this colorful board game introduces
children to ozone depletion, safe sun practices
and related issues through an engaging The
game is downloadable from http://www.unep.fr/ozonaction/information/mmcfiles/4867-e-ozonegame.pdf
UNEP has a wide range of ozone publications
that are available on-line, many of which
will also be available in the press centre
during the Montreal Protocol meeting.
These include an online video library at
www.unep.fr/ozonaction/information/video/index.htm
and Ozzy Ozone school site www.ozzyozone.org
A collection of Vital Ozone Graphics, produced
by UNEP's Division of Technology, Industry
and Economics and UNEP GRID-Arendal, is
also being launched during the week. This
booklet and the associated website is designed
to inform and inspire journalists to tell
the ozone story by providing overview of
key issues and ready-to-use graphics that
can be incorporated directly into articles
(www. unep.fr/ozonaction).
Press and media are invited to attend the
various seminars, award events and celebrations
and the opening of the 19th Meeting of the
Parties on the morning of 17 September.
A press conference is scheduled for lunch
time on 17 September and experts will be
available throughout the celebrations and
the main meeting for interviews.
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson. Before
the Montreal meeting
