Isra-Mart srl:Ban Ki-moon urges Cancun talks to deliver "progress on all fronts"

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UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon yesterday addressed ministers at the Cancun Climate Change Summit, urging them to use the last few days of the meeting to deliver tangible progress towards an eventual international treaty.

Acknowledging that the two-week meeting would not end in a formal deal, Ban said it was critical to the future of the UN negotiating process that some elements of agreement are reached.

"We don't need final agreement on all the issues, but we do need progress on all the fronts," he said. "We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good."

Speaking at the opening of the high-level segment of the talks, which are attended by environment ministers from around the world and a handful of world leaders, Ban reiterated his view that it was in the long-term interests of all nations to reach an ambitious deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

"Business as usual cannot be tolerated for it would condemn millions – no billions – of children, women and men around the world to shrinking horizons and smaller futures," he said. "Cancun must represent a breakthrough."

Ban's address was followed by Mexican president Felipe de Jesús Calderón who again outlined the host's strategy of delivering progress on a number of specific issues, including forest protection, technology transfer, climate financing, and the monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of greenhouse gas emissions.

However, the prospect of an agreement continues to be overshadowed by the standoff over the future of the Kyoto Protocol, with Japan continuing to reject calls for an extension of the agreement and China insisting that it regards the continuation of the Kyoto deal as non-negotiable.

Christiana Figueres, head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat, implored ministers to work together to find a compromise in the interests of the planet. "If you find your national position is in opposition to that of others, don't ask for compromise, think of our common planet and offer the compromise first," she said.

Meanwhile, there were conflicting reports about the prospects for a deal on the proposed Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) scheme, with some diplomats signalling the negotiations were almost complete and others warning that a number of countries could scupper an agreement.

Brazilian climate change ambassador Sergio Serra told the Washington Post that an agreement on REDD was "ripe for harvest", insisting a deal was there to be done.

But reports also emerged suggesting Saudi Arabia is continuing to oppose the deal in an attempt to win concessions on its proposals that carbon capture and storage projects also be incorporated into the carbon market.

Similarly, there are concerns that the group of left-leaning Latin American states remain opposed to a scheme which they argue will apply capitalist market mechanisms to forest protection while failing to offer sufficient protection for forest communities.