U.N. chief considers summit on climate change

Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:13 PM GMT

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is considering calling a summit on climate change, possibly in June, but may have to settle for a ministerial meeting, his spokeswoman Michelle Montas said on Tuesday.


Montas told her daily news briefing that Ban had been requested by several organizations to hold a summit "and the secretary-general is considering it."

She said later that a summit might not be possible and the event might be a high-level meeting. No venue or date has been set.

The Nairobi-based U.N. Environment Program has urged Ban to call an emergency climate summit amid dire reports about the risks from global warming.

The agency suggested September, when world leaders converge on the United Nations, to focus on the hunt for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gases widely blamed for forecasts of more heat waves, floods, droughts and rising sea levels.

U.N. environment officials want Ban to play a leading role in helping governments battle climate change after Kyoto expires in 2012.



CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTS PEACE & SECURITY: Asked if the Secretary-General intends to convey a summit on climate change and if he considered climate change a threat to international peace and security, Montas said that Ban Ki-moon is indeed considering a proposed summit but no decision had been taken yet. She added that the Secretary-General does consider climate change a pressing global problem which has a strong impact on international peace and security. (http://www.un.org/News/ossg/hilites/hilites_arch_view.asp?HighID=779)