[hepr-vn] LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE CRITICAL ROLE TO PLAY IN FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE -- BAN [in China visit]

[Vern Weitzel]

Subject: LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE CRITICAL ROLE TO PLAY IN FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE 
CHANGE -- BAN
Date: Sat, 25 Jul 2009 15:00:02 -0400
From: UNNews <UNNews at un.org>
To: <news4 at secint00.un.org>

LOCAL GOVERNMENTS HAVE CRITICAL ROLE TO PLAY IN FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE -- BAN
New York, Jul 25 2009  3:00PM
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 today as his 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 lo
cal 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.

Mr. Ban, on the second day of his visit to China, today 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.

Tomorrow Mr. Ban is slated to travel to Mongolia, wher
e he will address the challenges of climate change and adaptation with an 
emphasis on the special needs of landlocked countries.

Mongolia is one of 30 landlocked developing countries, which face a number of 
constraints to their economic development, including lack of territorial access 
to the sea, remoteness and isolation from world markets and high transit costs.

Mr. Ban is expected to meet with President Elbegdorj Tsakhia, Prime Minister 
Bayar Sanj and Foreign Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold. He will also spend time in a 
traditional Mongolian herder community that is faced with water shortages and 
desertification.

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Vern Weitzel (Mr.) BSc, BA, MA, M Env Man & Dev
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