HEILIGENDAMM, Germany, June 8 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the strong political will put forward by Group of Eight leaders to curb climate change.
"We have some strong momentum now," he said Friday shortly before he met with leaders at the G8 summit in the German Baltic Sea resort of Heilligendamm. He said momentum "must not be lost."
On Thursday, after tough negotiations, G8 leaders agreed on a text to jointly combat climate change. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the summit's host, managed to convince U.S. President Bush of the need to "seriously consider" halving greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and holding post-Kyoto talks under the purview of the United Nations. She also pushed through the idea of including a strong plea for energy efficiency measures in the text.
To "facilitate the process" jump-started by the G8 and preparing the meeting of U.N. environment ministers at the end of this year in Bali, Indonesia, Ban proposed holding a "special high-level meeting" on Sept. 24 in New York.
The meeting would serve as an "important preparatory step for the Bali negotiations, he said.
