United Nations Radio

2009 will be the year of action on climate change according to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The year will culminate in a meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark next December to draw up a new treaty to slash global warming greenhouse gases. The preparatory meeting in Poland earlier this month laid the foundation for serious negotiations on the treaty, which is to succeed the Kyoto protocol. One of the speakers at the conference in Poznan was Nobel laureate and climate activist, Al Gore.

As UN Radio's Gerry Adams reports, the former US Vice-President encouraged participants in the face of the formidable obstacles, to continue making steady progress towards an agreement in Copenhagen in 2009.

Gore: We, the human species, have arrived at a moment of fateful decision because our home, earth, is in danger. What is at risk of being destroyed is of course not the planet itself, but the conditions that have made it hospitable for human beings.

Narrator: Al Gore, who was one of many who spoke at the recent Poznan Conference on Climate Change, laid out a message of encouragement and action that needs to be taken to address the ongoing issue of climate change. The former US Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize laureate said scientists warn we are moving dangerously close to so-called "tipping points" that could make it impossible to heal the environmental damage we are causing. Take the melting of glaciers, for example:

Gore: In virtually all of the mountain ranges of this planet, the glaciers are now melting rapidly - in the Alps, in the Andes, in the Rockies - and most ominously in the Himalayas, which contain 100 times as much ice and snow as all of the mountains here in Europe.

Narrator: Or what's happening to the world's lakes, seas and oceans:

Gore: Many shallow lakes, including prominently Lake Chad, have disappeared. The Great Lakes of Africa are undergoing dramatic change. The great lakes of North America are losing their ice cover and the water level is dropping dramatically. SEGUE The dumping of 25 million tons of CO2 into the oceans of the world every day and the increasing acidification of the ocean water, along with rising temperature is putting stress on the ocean fisheries throughout our planet.

Narrator: Al Gore brings up numerous other environmental warnings - the record rates of flooding that have occurred on every continent; that 20 of the hottest years on record have occurred in the past 25 years. And he says the extinction crisis is tearing at the web of life. But the causes for hope and encouragement, he says, are greater than the causes for fear:

Gore: And even though the steps that you have taken and that have been taken by nations around the world sometimes seem small and even though the progress seem seems painfully slow, it is worth taking stock and recognizing that this great enterprise that began 16 years ago has now taken us to a vantage point from which we can see the basis for success. Because in spite of the remaining obstacles and difficulties, I believe that the causes for hope and optimism are greater than the causes for doubt and discouragement. And I believe the road to Copenhagen is now clear. (aplause)

Narrator: The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland was the international community's next step toward its meeting in Copenhagen in 2009. Countries have agreed that in Copenhagen, an ambitious climate change deal will be clinched to follow the first phase of the UN's Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Reporting for UN Radio, this is Gerry Adams.

(duration: 4'10")