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Climate agreement needed to prevent forced migration, says UN chief

ATHENS: The world urgently needs a climate deal out of a summit in Copenhagen next month to forestall forced migration that is already occurring in Asia and Africa, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday.

“We are in a critical period,” Ban told delegates at a United Nations conference on the economic impact of immigration. “Populations will relocate due to more extreme weather, including prolonged droughts, intensive storms, wildfires,” he said. The threat is already visible in the “devastation” wreaked on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Ban said, adding that perennial floods displace millions in countries like Bangladesh whilst rural areas in Africa are emptying from desertification.

“We need action and agreement in Copenhagen. We will continue to push for the most ambitious targets and the most ambitious agreement possible,” he said. The December 7-18 talks in Copenhagen aim to produce a treaty that will take effect after 2012 when current pledges of the Kyoto Protocol expire, setting medium- and long-term goals for taming global warming.

US President Barack Obama and European Union leaders pledged on Tuesday to redouble efforts for a deal on climate change at a summit in Copenhagen, but gave no details of how to reach that ambitious goal. “We discussed climate change extensively and all of us agreed that it was imperative for us to redouble our efforts in the weeks between now and the Copenhagen meeting to ensure that we create a framework for progress,” Obama told reporters.

Obama spoke after a White House meeting with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, EU Foreign Affairs chief Javier Solana and Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country currently holds the EU’s collective presidency. The Europeans sounded optimistic a deal was within reach. “Regarding climate change, I want to tell (you) that I am more confident now than I was in days before,” said Barroso. “President Obama changed the climate on the climate negotiations. Because with the strong leadership of the United States we can indeed make an agreement.” agencies

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