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SCIENCEWednesday 30 December

AP Interview: Climate deal caps a long quest for UN chief

North Korea. in December 2007.
Ban traced his interest in
climate change to his year- The United States, the lone
long campaign to lead the
United Nations, which took major industrial nation to
him to many countries and
broadened his vision of reject Kyoto, was oppos-
global issues.
Two weeks before he was ing India’s proposal to
sworn in as secretary-gen-
eral, Ban told Tim Wirth, strengthen requirements
then president of the Unit-
ed Nations Foundation, for richer nations to help
that one of his two highest
priorities would be climate poorer countries with tech-
change, along with em-
powering women. nology to limit emissions.
“You could have blown
me away,” Wirth said of In one of the most memo-
Ban’s choice of tackling
global warming. “He had rable moments in climate
a deep commitment then,
and he has stayed with change diplomacy, tiny
it, and stayed with it, and
stayed with it.” Papua New Guinea im-
At the time, climate
change was not a popular plored America to lead or
topic.
The 1997 Kyoto treaty, get out of the way.
which required only rich
countries to limit emissions An isolated United States
blamed for global warm-
ing, was set to expire in capitulated, and the first
2012. Negotiations on a
new agreement had al- roadmap for addressing
most collapsed, Ban said.
“I thought that I needed to climate change was ad-
revive this one,” he said.
His first high-level meeting opted.
as U.N. chief was with then-
President George W. Bush. “Miraculously, I was able to
The original agenda for
U.N. Secretary General Ban K-moon addresses the media during his year-end news conference their January 2007 meet- save this one, but I didn’t
at United Nations headquarters. In early December, the Secretary General saw the adoption of a ing didn’t include climate
first-of-its kind agreement signed by 200 countries to curb greenhouse gasses. Climate change change, Ban said, and know why,” Ban said.
was one of the Secretary General’s top three priorities while seeking office. Bush “seemed to be a lit-
tle bit surprised” when he In early 2009, he finally
(Amanda Voisard/The UN via AP) raised it.Undeterred, Ban
decided to hold the first- found out.
ever climate change sum-
mit at the United Nations in Ban and his wife were in-
July 2007.
EDITH M. LEDERER onstage, arms raised in vic- Now, on the eve of his final He invited Bush and told vited to dinner at the White
Associated Press tory and more exuberant year in office, the cheers in him that the success of
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — than many had ever seen Paris marked the culmina- the summit would depend House in the last days of the
When international nego- him before. tion of his nonstop cam- on his participation. Bush
tiators reached a first-of- Nearly nine years had paign, pressed with world came, though he didn’t Bush presidency. Bush told
its kind climate change passed since, in his first leaders at summit after address the summit.
agreement in Paris this days as secretary-general, summit and in locales in- That connection paid off the U.N. chief that when
month, the United Nations’ Ban surprised world leaders cluding melting glaciers at a U.N. conference in Bali
normally low-key leader, by making global warming and islands at risk of disap- the Bali meeting reached
Ban Ki-moon, celebrated a top item on his agenda. pearing.
It was an emotional mo- a difficult moment, he got
ment, and looking back
at the road to Paris in an a call from the head of the
interview with The Associ-
ated Press, Ban paid trib- U.S. delegation asking for
ute to many people, in-
cluding the leaders of the instructions. Ban said Bush
United States, China, India
and France. He also spoke told him: “Suddenly, you
proudly of his own role.
No other leader in the came to my mind. Then I
world “has been raising,
without fail, all the time, cli- told the delegation head,
mate change,” Ban said. “I
have spent real passion ... ‘Do what the secretary-
and most of my time and
energy on this issue.” general of the U.N. wants
It was quite a shift for the
former South Korean for- to do,’.”
eign minister, whose main
focus before becoming The secretary-general said
the eighth U.N. secretary-
general in 2007 was his he still feels “very much
country’s standoff with
grateful” to Bush.

“That was the beginning of

our success,” Ban said.

But then came the dis-

appointment of the 2009

Copenhagen climate

change negotiations.

In Copenhagen, a newly

elected President Barack

Obama showed “great

commitment,” even work-

ing on proposed global

text from his laptop, Ban

said. But there were too

many differences and ne-

gotiations ended with no

agreement.q