New UN climate-change chief rallies governments to step up action

(Aug.03,2010) With the future of humanity at stake, governments must continue building common ground to further progress on climate change, the new United Nations chief on the issue, said in the latest round of international negotiations which began in Bonn, Germany on Monday. “Whether we succumb to the storms of climate change, or work together to reach the far shore - is up to us to decide,” said Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change – UNFCCC .
In her first address to UN climate change talks as head of the UNFCCC since taking over from Yvo de Boer last month, Figueres told delegates “As individuals, as governments, as a global community, we must all exceed our own expectations, simply because nothing less will do.” Science, she said, has shown when, and by how much greenhouse gas emissions must drop, to avert climate change’s worst impacts. “Time is not on our side,” Figueres stated. “Decisions need to be taken with firm steps and unwavering resolve.”
The week-long talks under way in Bonn are the third round of UN climate change negotiations so far this year, ahead of the next conference of parties to the UNFCCC in Cancun, Mexico in November. More than 3,000 people, including government delegates and representatives of the private sector, environmental groups and research institutions are attending the Bonn gathering this week.