United Nations Radio

PRES: Climate change experts are in Geneva debating on ways to better adapt to variations in the climate due to global warming. The UN Secretary-General joined them this Thursday and made a passionate plea to world leaders asking them to cut greenhouse emissions before it is too late. Jocelyne Sambira reports.

NARR: The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference is less than three months away. Some of the most complex issues have to be resolved before then. The UN Secretary-General recently traveled to the Arctic to see for himself the effects of climate change. He shared his experience with global leaders in Geneva attending a conference on climate change this week.

BAN: I saw the remains of a glacier that just few years ago, was a majestic mass of ice. It has collapsed.

NARR: He then traveled nine hours further North by ship to reach the polar ice rim. He had to use an ice-breaking ship but predicts that a few years from now, ships will be able to sail unimpeded.

BAN: At current rates, scientists predict the Arctic could be virtually ice free by 2030. The receding ice is opening up opportunities of exploitation of Arctic resources. If not managed carefully, this competition could lead to over-fishing, pollution from mining and oil exploration and even international disputes over territorial claims.

NARR: Nobel Prize Winner and Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Rajendra Kumar warns of what will happen if no action is taken to lower rising temperatures that are warming the planet.

KUMAR: If you add to this the melting of ice across the globe, as Secretary-General of the UN has reminded us, I myself have been to these locations, and I can assure you, that if you add the two together we are certainly going to face a dire crisis, if not a catastrophe across the world.

NARR: Effects of climate change are also evident on the southern side of the globe. Armando Emilio Guebuza, President of Mozambique recalls the story of baby Rosita born in a tree top during one of his country's worst floods.

GUEBUZA: The intensity, magnitude and continuous downpour had broken the known rain patterns and had turned into a new tragic experience for the Mozambicans on the Limpopo Valley. The fact that they had to climb into a tree top meant that they were not warned early to escape and the subsequent strategy denounced our lack of rescue capacity.

NARR: These testimonies delivered during the World Climate Change Conference in Geneva demonstrate clearly that no single country or continent is immune to climate change. That is why, says Rajendra Kumar, world leaders have to start reducing global emissions by 2015.

KUMAR: We know that floods, droughts, heat waves, extreme precipitation events are increasing and will continue to increase in intensity, frequency, and duration. We would be making a terrible mistake if we did not seize the moment, and seize this opportunity to bring about stabilization of the Earth's climate because our future, our children and all species on Earth depends on this reality.

NARR: Co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, Rajendra Kumar on tackling global warming to save our planet.

Producer: Jocelyne Sambira
Duration: 3:12