Secretary-General en route to Italy to meet with G8 leaders

(July 12, 2009) Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is heading to the Italian city of L’Aquila, Thursday July 9^th, where he will meet with the leaders who are attending the annual summit of the Group of Eight (G8) industrialized nations, after wrapping up his first official visit to Ireland. In a letter sent to G8 leaders ahead of their 8-10 July summit, Mr. Ban highlighted climate change and development as some of the current challenges requiring action. Among other things, Mr. Ban asked G8 governments to take the lead on the issue of climate change by making “ambitious and firm commitments” to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 per cent, the levels the Inter
governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says are required on the part of industrialized countries to ward off the worst effects of global warming. On development, the Secretary-General urged the G8 to outline how donors will scale up aid to Africa over the next year to fulfil the commitments the Group made at its summit in Gleneagles, Scotland, in 2005.