UNifeed: UN / CLIMATE CHANGE WRAP

UN / CLIMATE CHANGE WRAP

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon calls the climate change deal reached by world leaders in Copenhagen an "essential beginning," adding that work must now focus on turning the deal into a legally binding treaty. UNTV

Duration:03:25Date:21 December 2009

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United Nations Television, ENVIRONMENT

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Full Script

STORY: UN / CLIMATE CHANGE WRAP
TRT: 3.25
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 21 DECEMBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

SHOTLIST:

RECENT 2009, NEW YORK CITY

1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations headquarters

21 DECEMBER 2009, NEW YORK CITY

2. Wide shot, Ban Ki-moon approaches microphone
3. Cutaway, cameramen
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“Let me first of all say the Conference was a success. Among the conference decisions, the Copenhagen Accord marks a significant step forward. First, it commits countries to work to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius. It also says that they will review this commitment in 2015 to take account of new scientific evidence. I understand that the IPCC is going to try to release their fifth assessment report in 2014.”
5. Cutaway, hands taking notes
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“I believe this accord represents almost all member states of the countries positions. Of course I understand that all the elements do not meet full satisfaction of all the countries. But we didn’t expect that we would be able to have this legally binding treaty satisfying all the elements to all the member states, but I think we did get what we need to get this process move on.”
7. Wide shot, press conference
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Indonesia
“Given the fact that we were approaching Copenhagen with a great deal of pessimism because of the obvious differences that still exist as we approach Copenhagen, but in the final analysis though the outcome wasn’t as optimum as we had all wished, nonetheless we had made sufficient progress we think to have a good sound launch pad for 2010 and of course in 2010 we need to work extremely diligently so that we can have a legally binding treaty by the middle of next year hopefully.”
11. Wide shot, press conference
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Robert Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Strategic Planning, United Nations:
We won’t know exactly how many people signed on to that political agreement until governments have a chance to literally sign on to it. If you take their public statements you can say, ‘this political agreement that was hashed out under intense negotiating circumstances does have a broad basis support, but the exact numbers and nature of that support won’t be known until they actually take action. Is it a failure for the Secretary-General? Quite the opposite. There would not have been a consensus resolution to put this before all the members governments had the Secretary-General not directly intervened in the closing plenary.”
14. Cutaway, meeting
15. SOUNDBITE (English) Janos Pasztor, Director, Secretary-General's Climate Change Support team, United Nations:
“We’ve been saying, the Secretary-General has been saying for over a year that we need very strong political guidance from the highest levels to the negotiations and what we got in this accord is exactly that without the next step of making the legally binding treaty would not be possible. So we have an accord which has immediate follow up, but at the same time it provides that guidance to the negotiators next year. So we actually got two things.”
16. Wide shot, press conference

STORYLINE:

“Let me first of all say the Conference was a success. Among the conference decisions, the Copenhagen Accord marks a significant step forward,” said United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at a press encounter today upon his return from Copenhagen.

Ban, who was speaking to reporters at the UN Headquarters in New York, said that the agreement reached commits countries to work to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius, and he said that it also says that countries will review that commitment in 2015 to take account of new scientific evidence, and the Intergovernmenttal Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) would try to release their fifth assessment report in 2014.

Acknowledging that the climate change deal reached over the weekend in Copenhagen was not ideal for all nations, Ban exhorted world leaders to act in concert to ensure that a legally binding treaty was reached next year.

“Of course I understand that all the elements do not meet full satisfaction of all the countries. But we didn’t expect that we would be able to have this legally binding treaty satisfying all the elements to all the Member States,” Ban said.

The two-week-long UN conference in Copenhagen, attended by 128 Heads of State and Government, was marked by interruptions in negotiations due to divisions between States over transparency and other issues.

Nonetheless, Ban said that the talks represented a beginning because without nations hammering out a deal in Copenhagen, the financial and technical support for poorer nations agreed upon would not take immediate effect.

Also briefing to reporters today, Indonesia's newly appointed Foreign Minister, Marty M. Natalegawa, presented his Government's commitment to working with other nations over the coming year to bring upon a legally binding deal to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Natalegawa said that  although countries were approaching Copenhagen with a great deal of pessimism nonetheless sufficient progress had been made to have a good “launch pad” for 2010 and he added that “in 2010 we need to work extremely diligently so that we can have a legally binding treaty by the middle of next year hopefully.”

Following that, the UN Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning, Robert Orr and  the Director of the Secretary-General's Climate Change Support team, Janos Pasztor also met reporters.

Orr said that they will not know exactly how many people signed on to that political agreement until governments had a chance to “literally sign on to it.” Orr added that taking into account the public statements one could asses that "this political agreement that was hashed out under intense negotiating circumstances does have a broad basis support, but the exact numbers and nature of that support won’t be known until they actually take action".

Pasztor concluded that “we have an accord which has immediate follow up, but at the same time it provides that guidance to the negotiators next year. So we actually got two things.”

The accord reached in Copenhagen includes an agreement to working towards curbing global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius, efforts to reduce or limit emissions, and pledges to mobilize one hundred billion dollars a year for developing countries to combat climate change.

The coming challenge for the UN will be to harness political will and translate it into action, said the Secretary-General, who will set up a high-level panel on development and climate change.

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