Humanity's greatest threat

2007-04-23 10:09

Oslo, Norway - The greatest threat facing humanity is climate change, former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday, and praised a Norwegian initiative to reduce the country's net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that his Labour party would set the world's most ambitious climate goals, and presented a three-point plan during his party's annual congress, which this year focused on climate change.

Annan - in Oslo to address the party's congress - said Norway's plan should set a standard for other nations.

"If we do not get the climate under control, if we do not confront the challenges of the environment, then everything else may be washed aside," Annan said.

"The environment is going to write the manuscript on how we proceed around the world, otherwise it will take away the future of our children," he said.

Stoltenberg's three-point plan calls for reducing pollution by 10 percentage points more than promised under the Kyoto Agreement by 2012, a 30% emissions cut by 2020, and lowering net emissions to zero by 2050. The last goal would be obtained by using cleaner technology at home, buying carbon quotas abroad and helping developing countries build clean energy sources, such as wind and solar power.

"I'm doing this because climate change is crucial," Stoltenberg told his party, which was expected to approve the proposal. "The greenhouse effect concerns all people. It is the most dangerous environmental problem."

Labour's junior partners in the coalition government - the Socialist Left and the Centre Party - supported cutting emissions by 30% within 13 years, but have not yet agreed to the two other goals.

Annan said other national governments should follow Stoltenberg's example and "aim for a higher target, rather than a low ball target".

The time was coming, Annan said, when public opinion would embolden governments to take similar steps, because "people are beginning to understand. And when they understand, politicians will have the courage to act".

- AP