Ban: Global warming requires global action

VADUZ, Liechtenstein, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- The global community needs to act collectively to tackle the challenges of climate change, the U.N. secretary-general said in Liechtenstein.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the international community faces a new set of problems as the world becomes more interconnected.

"Our world has never been so mobile. Borders have never been so porous, even irrelevant," he told civil and political leaders.

The secretary-general stressed that global threats required global leadership and a new way of thinking about common problems.

"We must think green, too, (about) an ambitious climate change agreement and environmental governance that protects the resource basis," he said.

Global climate negotiations remain deadlocked after the Copenhagen climate summit last year ended without a binding climate protection agreement.

Developing nations have resisted a legally binding treaty because they claim rich nations that have benefited from emitting greenhouse gases during the past decades should shoulder more of the burden. Industrialized countries argue the developing nations need to commit to concrete reduction targets to enable a global effort.

Ban stressed that he didn't mean to imply there was a need for a global government to tackle global problems.

"What I mean, quite simply, is sovereign states coming together ... pragmatically, as partners. I mean people transcending borders and narrow national identities to defend against common threats -- and to seize common opportunities," he said in prepared remarks.