U.N. environment chief Achim Steiner, director of its Environment Programme, issued a plea for world leaders to avoid failure in the Copenhagen climate change talks next month.
The likely delays in sealing a global deal to fight climate change would have a "human cost", and increase the risks of great harm to the planet and the economic costs of dealing with it, the head of the UN environment programme said today. Achim Steiner also said there was an "extremely high" risk that the UN-hosted talks would drift into deadlock if the summit in Copenhagen next month failed to deliver a meaningful agreement. "The world has been focused on this moment for years," he told the U. K.'s Guardian.
A new global treaty to address climate change which many have hoped would be completed in December at the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen "will take at least six months and possibly another year to finalize," according to negotiators at the heart of the UN talks as reported November 5 in the Guardian News and Media.
In a related item, Oxfam America has produced a new video on the urgent and critical need for action on climate disruptions. It's about 2 ½ minutes and is currently posted on the Oxfam America home page.
