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Troika leaders push new global climate commitment
The United Nations has admitted the pivotal role of the troika leaders, from Indonesia, Poland and Denmark, in the negotiation process toward a new regime to fight climate change
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The United Nations has admitted the pivotal role of the troika leaders, from Indonesia, Poland and Denmark, in the negotiation process toward a new regime to fight climate change.
Indonesian permanent representative to the UN Marty Natalegawa said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would converse via a video conference for the second time in October, to promote talks on steps to be taken after commitments to the Kyoto Protocol expire in 2012.
Marty said the video conference was scheduled for October when heads of states meet in Beijing for the ASEAN-European Union (ASEM) Summit, which the UN Secretary General may not attend.
Ban, Yudhoyono, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen held a video conference on Friday to discuss a follow-up of the climate change conference in Bali last December.
During the recent conference, which was kept from the media, the leaders also discussed the significant role of the UN secretary-general and the troika leaders in the negotiations process for climate change.
"The UN Secretary-General asked for the improvement of measures and in particular for the heads of state to make full use of the political momentum," Marty said as quoted by Antara.
Yudhoyono said during the video conference that Indonesia, like China, South Korea, India and other major economies, had already established a national climate change strategy. The private sector had also been involved in climate change issues and were eager to be part of the solution, he said.
He urged developed countries to take the lead in securing the stabilization of greenhouse gases and ensuring no delays in the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol.
"In this regard, we also need to push harder to agree on deeper cuts to global emissions as well as a medium-term vision for 2020," Yudhoyono said.
Ban and the troika leaders will hold a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York on Sept. 24, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
"Because the President (Yudhoyono) will not be present, he will be represented by the Foreign Minister (Hassan Wirajuda)," Marty said.
The three heads of state and the UN chief will also write a joint article ahead of the UN climate change summit in Poznan, Poland, in December.
"The article will underline the need to take the common will among heads of state to directly participate in fostering negotiations as momentum to boost the climate change talks," Marty said.
The latest UN climate change summit resulted in the Bali Roadmap which outlines the process of negotiations toward greenhouse gas emissions reduction which binds all parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol works by giving industrialized countries targets to reduce their emissions during the "compliance period" between 2008 and 2012, averaging out at 5.2 percent below 1990 levels.
Negotiations need to be completed and accepted when the parties meet in Copenhagen in December 2009, otherwise the most recent global commitments will break down.
