Local governments are critical in fighting climate change, says Ban

Monday, 27 July 2009 07:28

National and local governments must work more closely together in tackling climate change if the world is going to mount an effective response to the problem, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Sunday he continued to spotlight green issues during his official visit to China.

Mr. Ban toured the city of Xi'an, renowned for its 2,000-year-old terracotta warriors, and saw first-hand the efforts of local authorities to protect the environment and maintain cultural heritage while transforming the city into a more modern urban area that can handle its growing population.

He also met with the Governor of Shaan'Xi province, visited a solar energy research centre and a sewage treatment site, and toured the Terra Cotta Warriors Museum, which is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site.

In his meetings Mr. Ban praised local authorities for their efforts and urged national and local governments worldwide to better integrate their approaches to climate change to ensure they are more effective.

“National governments can have their national policies, but after all it is provincial governments who have to implement these policies and even from this kind of bottom-up support, policies will be much more effective than to-down policies,” he said.

“Top-down policies by the central government and bottom-up policies by the local governments, one day united,” means that the world can successfully address climate change and sustainable economic development, according to the Secretary-General.

Today, Mr. Ban spent time with the Bayansonginot herder community in central Mongolia, and is staying overnight in a ger, a type of traditional Mongolian dwelling, to understand first-hand the effects that desertification and other problems are having on the ways of life of many people worldwide.

The Secretary-General received a briefing on the impact of climate change in Hustai National Park, located about 100 kilometers southwest of the capital, Ulaanbaatar, and home to the wild horses known as Takhi.

On the first day of Mr. Ban's three-day visit to Mongolia, he also held talks with Foreign Minister Batbold Sukhbaatar and visited the Tavan Tolgoi Peace Operations Support Training Centre, which trains Mongolian troops being sent to United Nations peacekeeping operations.

“At the United Nations, we appreciate all Mongolian peacekeepers for your discipline, your international perspective and your commitment to bringing peace and stability to war-torn countries, no matter what difficult conditions you may face,” he said in an address at the centre.

Earlier, he told journalists on arrival in Ulaanbaatar that he was pleased by the growing partnership between the UN and Mongolia on many fronts.

“Mongolia has also been taking a leadership in meeting the target of the Millennium Development Goals,” he said, referring to the series of targets for slashing social and economic ills which world leaders have agreed to try to reach by 2015.

“Mongolia is [a] model country among the Member States in achieving a successful transition to democracy and also achieving [a] market economy with an empowered population, and this is a very important example. I believe that many Member States should emulate from the Mongolian model.”

But the Secretary-General also stressed that the Mongolian Government and people face a real challenge in adapting to the consequences of climate change and ensuring sustainable economic development.

“You have a problem of desertification. You have also economic degradation problems. But these are all common challenges which we must address.”

Yesterday, Mr. Ban also reiterated the importance of Chinese leadership for the global climate change talks being held in Copenhagen, Denmark, this December. Those talks are supposed to result in an emissions pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, whose first commitment period ends in 2012.

Source: UN News