Published: Wednesday July 1, 2009 MYT 10:23:00 AM
Updated: Wednesday July 1, 2009 MYT 12:40:25 PM
UN chief says climate pact must be finalized
TOKYO (AP): U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Wednesday the world must seal the deal on a new treaty to curb pollution at a crucial climate change meeting in Copenhagen in December, urging global business leaders to join efforts against global warming.
Ban, who has put climate change among his top priorities, said he would mobilize "every effort" to reach an agreement at the U.N. meeting to adopt an ambitious global treaty to replace the Kyoto protocol, which expires in 2012.
"We must seal the deal in Copenhagen in December this year," the U.N. chief told a group of Japanese business leaders.
"It will be a moment of truth in Copenhagen whether we will set ourselves on course for disaster by taking business as usual attitude or we will find the path of sustainable green growth," he said. "We know the answer. We must take the course of sustainable green growth."
Ban is on a three-day trip to Japan before heading to Myanmar on Friday. The U.N. chief will hold talks with Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso later in the day.
The two leaders will likely discuss Ban's upcoming visit to the military-ruled country as well as North Korea's nuclear and missile threats.
On climate change, Ban told Japanese business leaders that they should do more to help the world reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"Your role is extremely, crucially important. I count on your leadership," Ban said.
The U.N. chief was stopping by Japan ahead of his trip to Myanmar.
On Tuesday, Ban urged Myanmar's ruling junta to release all of its political prisoners, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The pro-democracy icon is being held in Myanmar's Insein prison and is being tried on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man swam to her closely guarded lakeside home in Yangon in May and stayed two days.
Ban is set to arrive in Yangon - Myanmar's commercial capital - the same day Suu Kyi's trial resumes.
Suu Kyi's trial has drawn outrage from world leaders and human rights groups who say the junta is using the incident as an excuse to keep the pro-democracy icon behind bars through elections scheduled for 2010. She faces up to five years in prison if convicted.
The junta called elections in 1990, but refused to recognize a landslide victory by Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy.
The U.N. chief - who is scheduled to meet with junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe - said he would use the trip to convey the concerns of the international community "to the highest authority" of Myanmar's government.
But he did not say whether he would meet the 64-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate, who has already spent more than 13 of the past 19 years in detention without trial, mostly under house arrest.
The U.N. chief leaves for Singapore Thursday before heading to Myanmar on Friday.
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