U.N. chief calls for progress as high-level climate talks begin+

CANCUN, Mexico, Dec. 7 Kyodo -
(EDS: ADDING QUOTES, RECASTING)
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon urged countries on Tuesday to make tangible
progress on curbing global warming at the ongoing U.N. climate change
conference in Mexico, as its ministerial-level segment got under way.
Disputes over how to rein in greenhouse gas emissions remain unresolved,
particularly over whether the Kyoto Protocol should be extended beyond 2012,
putting pressure on leaders and ministers gathered here to use their political
leverage to reach agreement.
At the opening ceremony of the upgraded portion of the annual meeting, Ban
said, ''We do not need final agreement on all the issues, but we do need
progress on all the fronts.''
''We can't let the perfect be the enemy of the good,'' he added.
Delegates from nearly 200 countries at the 16th Conference of the Parties to
the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP16, have until Friday to
reach decisions after making little progress during the first week.
''If you find your national position is in opposition to that of others, don't
ask for compromise. Think about the common planet and offer compromise first,''
said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. convention, in the
opening ceremony.
Developed countries, in particular Japan, and developing countries remain
sharply divided over whether to extend the legally binding 1997 protocol, whose
five-year commitment period for greenhouse gas emissions cuts runs out at the
end of 2012, with the latter calling for a second commitment period.
Japan rejected such calls at the outset of this year's meeting and hardened the
positions of developing countries by saying it would not accept under any
circumstances having a reductions target continue beyond 2012 under the Kyoto
pact.
Tokyo's stance reflects its view that because the United States has refused to
ratify the pact, only developed economies like Japan and the European Union are
obligated to slash their emissions under the pact, while their emissions
account for only 27 percent of the world's total.
Japan argues that global warming cannot be curbed in any effective way unless
China and the United States -- the world's two largest carbon dioxide emitters
that together account for roughly 40 percent of emissions worldwide -- join in
a new broader architecture.
But developing countries say developed nations should continue to bear
emissions cut obligations under the current pact, as they are wealthier and
carry historical responsibility for past emissions.
As disputes over the issue continue, it is feared there will be no new
international framework in place to rein in greenhouse gases for 2013 and
beyond by the time the current pact's commitment period ends.
With suspicion running deep over Japan, the country's top delegate in Cancun,
Environment Minister Ryu Matsumoto, told reporters Tuesday that he will work
hard for an agreement, ''while conveying my country's true intentions and
listening to the opinions of various countries.''
Matsumoto will address the plenary on Thursday.
As his Pacific island country is threatened with rising sea levels -- one of
the main impacts of global warming -- Johnson Toribiong, president of the
Pacific island of Palau, urged delegates to take immediate action to curb
heat-trapping gas emissions.
''The oceans, which once sustained us, are now threatening to swallow us,'' he
said in his address to the plenary. ''The world cannot continue to treat
climate change as a subject of negotiation. Climate change is not negotiable.
It is a crisis.''
==Kyodo
2010-12-08 23:06:56