by Xinhua writer Gu Zhenqiu

    UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Nowadays almost everybody, from a government leader to a street vendor, is talking about climate change, described by the United Nations as a defining challenge of our times. The topic becomes even more hectic as the UN Summit on Climate Change draws near, attracting more than 90 heads of state or government in the largest yet gathering on the challenge.

    Indeed, global abnormal climate, such as drought or flooding, has brought disasters to many regions around the world, continuously ringing alarm to the human society. From Myanmar to the United States, from the Arctic to the Antarctic, every country and region is not immune to the impact of climate change. In response, no country can tackle the problem all by itself.

    However, no substantial progress has been reported so far from the UN climate change negotiations, thus prompting UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to convene the Sept. 22 summit in order to focus minds and generate action. The summit is mainly aimed at injecting a political impetus into the UN Climate Change Conference, which is to be held in Copenhagen in December.

    Diplomats from all UN member states will gather in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a successor to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which for the first time bound wealthy countries to specific cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

    Countries agreed to launch the new negotiations on a global agreement to tackle climate change at the end of 2007 in Bali, Indonesia. To reach an agreement at the Copenhagen conference, they set up an accelerated schedule for negotiations. But paving the way for constructive negotiations have proven extraordinarily complex.

    "This is an incredibly complex negotiation process. Unfortunately, we have not made much progress in the UN climate change negotiations," Ban told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview. "That is why I am convening this summit meeting." The secretary-general, who calls for global efforts to "seal a deal" in Copenhagen, has given top priority to the issue of climate change since he took his post more than two and a half years ago and called 2009 "the year of climate change."

    FEASIBLE AND CRUCIAL STRATEGY

    In fact, as vindicated by scientists, climate change has been made by human actions. Equally, this problem can be checked, or even solved by mankind with prompt and proper wisdom. For example, a feasible and crucial strategy is that efforts should be made to achieve win-win results in the climate change negotiations.

    First, the issue of greenhouse gas emissions should be viewed in the light of history.

    As we all know, a bulk of such emissions have been from the developed countries since the industrial revolution kicked off in the West about 250 years ago. In contrast, most developing countries, including China, only saw their own industrialization on a large scale several decades ago.

    The greenhouse gas emissions, mostly originated from the advanced nations, have made the recent 100 years the warmest century in the past millennium, and of the target century, the past two decades the warmest, reports said.

    "The glaciers were melting and the ice was getting thinner and thinner," said Ban of his visit to the Arctic a couple of weeks ago. "If we do not take urgent action, we will have to see a virtually ice-free North Pole. This will raise the sea level by 1.2 meters. This will be devastating to the world."

    According to a recent UN report, since 1950, the industrialized countries have contributed as much as three-quarters of the increase in global emissions, despite accounting for less than 15 percent of the world's population. The report, entitled The World Economic and Social Survey 2009: Promoting Development, Saving the Planet, was launched early this month by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).

    It is in developing countries that the impacts of climate change are most keenly felt and where the greatest impacts are forecast -- more severe droughts in some areas, more intense precipitation in others will wreak havoc with the world's water supplies and agricultural capacities.

    Only showing respect for history can one really understand the appeals from developing countries: the principles and provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol should be upheld and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities should be adhered to.

    Second, the issue of greenhouse gas emissions should be seen from the perspective of reality. The United Nations sees it a top priority for developing countries, including the poorest ones in the world, to achieve economic advancement. The United Nations has recommended a 500-billion-U.S. dollar plan that calls for a "truly integrated" strategy to curb rising temperatures and promote sustainable development at the same time.

    "We need to advance development, and at the same time keep up our efforts for energy conservation and emissions reduction," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at the recent opening ceremony of the third Annual Meeting of the New Champions of the World Economic Forum (WEF). "We need to strike a balance between these two and the ultimate goal of doing so is to achieve sustainable development."

    "Without development, we will not have the capacity to save energy and reduce emissions," Wen said.

    Third, effective actions should be taken at an early date to address climate change. The failure of wealthy countries to honor long-standing commitments of international support for poverty reduction and adequate transfers of resources and technology remains the single biggest obstacle to meeting the climate change challenge, the UN noted.

    Tackling climate change is the responsibility of the whole world. Both developed countries and developing ones should pursue the path of green development -- green investment, green consumption and green growth.

    To achieve this ambitious goal, both the rich countries and the poor ones need to take respective actions in light of their realities. To be exact, developed countries should redouble their efforts in energy conservation and emissions reduction and meet the emissions cut standards set in the Kyoto Protocol as scheduled.

    At the same time, industrialized countries should also extend technical, financial and capacity-building support to developing countries.

    Developing countries, on their part, should take energy conservation and emissions reduction measures, pursue green growth and extensively apply new technologies to reduce CO2 emissions in accordance with their realities. China has made and is making active efforts in this regard, and won acclaim from the world.

    Alas, time is really short! Win-win solutions must be found and mutually beneficial results must be achieved in the climate change talks at an early date. In order to prevent the Arctic ice from being further melting, developed countries and developing ones should join hands in facing up to the issue of climate change. The reason is simple: Any attempts by a party in the UN negotiations to maximize its own interest at the cost of interest of others in the negotiation process is not conducive to powering green economy and protecting our planet.