PRESIDENT SENDS STATEMENT TO UN CLIMATE CHANGE SUMMIT

United Nations, New York, Sept. 23 (ANTARA) - Although officially represented by Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar at the ongoing UN Climate Change Summit here, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also sent a video recorded statement to the meeting.

In the recorded statement to the Summit on Tuesday (Sept. 22), President Yudhoyono said, the upcoming Copenhagen conference must conclude with an agreement that ensures a secure climate future for all and there must be no gap after the expiry of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

"Remember: we can negotiate about the climate, but we cannot negotiate with the climate. We cannot ask the climate for more time," the president said. "Copenhagen is our time to seize the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to launch the post-2012 climate agreement."
"We must reach a consensus for the sake of our planet and for the future of humanity. Let us demonstrate that we are up to that momentous challenge. And we shall prevail," he said.

All efforts must be made to ensure the global average temperatures do not exceed 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels in 2050, he said.

"There is a historical responsibility that must be translated into deep cut emissions. This also should be transformed into willingness to help those who are vulnerable to the impact of climate change to adapt to it," he said.

To this end, developed countries must take the lead in the global effort to combat climate change, while developing countries should also engage in much broader actions to go beyond business as usual, he stated.

As agreed in the Bali Action Plan, the nationally appropriate mitigation actions should be truly supported by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner.

Indonesia had made climate change a key priority in its national budget for 2010, reaching half a billion dollars, which includes preservation and expansion of the country's tropical rain forest cover, he said.

Indonesia had also initiated, along with 10 other tropical rain forest countries, the Forest-11 joint cooperation, to ensure that their forests would be a key part of global climate solutions, Yudhoyono added.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his opening speech urged world leaders to take action on climate change and save the planet.

Some 100 world leaders were present at the United Nations headquarters in New York on Tuesday when the UN Secretary-General spoke.

The UN Climate Change Summit took place just less than 80 days before this December's climate change conference in Copenhagen. The December gathering is designed so the leaders can make work out a new agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions that would go into effect in 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires.