Envoy: Climate Change Must Be Addressed

UNITED NATIONS — Industrialized nations must assume responsibility for having "filled up the atmosphere" and work to reinvigorate the fight against pollution, a new U.N. representative for climate change said Wednesday.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, a former prime minister of Norway, said the unequal relationship between industrialized countries and developing ones was "at the heart of the problem" of climate change.

"We, the industrialized nations, must assume the largest responsibility," she said. "We are the ones who have filled up the atmosphere. We must carry the greatest responsibility for reducing emissions."

Brundtland, who is one of three new special envoys appointed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, spoke at a conference on sustainable development at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Wednesday’s conference marked 20 years since the publication of the U.N.’s research on the environmental impact of industrial growth. Today, Brundtland said, "doubt is eliminated" on the question of the effects of fossil fuels and carbon emissions.

"It is irresponsible, reckless and deeply amoral to question the seriousness of the situation," she said. "The time for diagnosis is over. The time to act is now."

Brundtland emphasized that addressing environmental degradation can begin in individual countries but can only be solved by extensive cooperation among the international community.

"We are all victimized together," Brundtland said of climate change. "Nobody can hide from it. Nobody can buy protection."

She noted that the highest producers of emissions, like the United States, but also major developing countries, will have to join the fight. The United States, the world’s largest polluter, is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, a 1997 international treaty that caps the amount of carbon dioxide that can be emitted from power plants and factories in industrialized countries. Currently, developing countries like China and India are exempt from its obligations.

More than 1,000 diplomats began working on a new accord to succeed the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012 at a meeting this week in Bonn, Germany. The ideas will be put before a larger meeting of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in December in Bali, Indonesia, when U.N. officials hope to launch formal negotiations on a post-Kyoto treaty.

Ban told the conference that fighting climate change was at the top of his agenda and a vital part of achieving sustainable development.

While industrial nations struggle to reduce their emissions without affecting their growth, developing nations are looking to improve their access to energy sources in order to spark growth, Ban said.

Industrial nations have a responsibility to help developing nations adapt to emerging emissions standards, he said.

"Many countries – especially the most vulnerable developing countries – need assistance in improving their capacity to adapt," Ban said, adding that there needs to be a "major push" in generating new technologies and making existing ones economically viable.

Brundtland said "none of us should be asking developing countries to slow down their ascent to prosperity," emphasizing that the fight against climate change must go hand-in-hand with the fight against poverty.

At a press briefing on the conference, Eric Solheim, minister of international development in Norway, said that achieving energy efficiency would be the easiest way to reduce the environmental impact without slowing growth.

Solheim also noted that many developing countries had skipped installing telephone landlines and gone straight to adopting cellular technology. So, too, must developing countries skip the heavy polluting phase industrial countries went through to arrive at what Brundtland called a "green economy."