City Leaders Worldwide Urge Swift Action on Climate Change

SEOUL, May 19 (PNA/Yonhap) -- Leaders of the world's 80 largest cities that produce a majority of the earth's harmful greenhouse gases opened an international forum in Seoul Tuesday, calling on governments to swiftly chart strategies to fight global warming.

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who gave the keynote speech during the opening ceremony of the C40 Large Cities Climate Summit in Seoul, warned of fatal consequences unless greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by up to 80 percent by 2050.

"I think it's important to be as specific and swift as possible on this matter," said Clinton, among some 400 representatives and climate change experts from across the world who attended the session.

"If we let the worst happen, we won't be able to save the planet for our grandchildren unless we take extremely expensive measures which can be avoided if we move now."

Attendants at the third meeting of the C40 summit, founded in 2005 to fight climate change and green house gas emissions, included mayors of Paris, London, Toronto, Moscow, Sydney and Tokyo, as well as Anna Tibaijuka, the under-secretary-general and executive director of the United Nations Human Settlements Program.

Emphasizing the need for his country to take the lead in reducing green house gas emissions and other environmentally-friendly measures, Clinton, the founder of the William J. Clinton Foundation, said nations "do not have the luxury of debating."

"The truth is most of the things we debated (in politics) could be grouped into 'What are you going to do' and 'How much are you going to spend on it,'" he said. "There was almost no discussion on 'how do you propose to invest it to do the maximum amount of good?' This is the question needed in Copenhagen."

The Seoul C40 summit comes ahead of the 2009 Climate Conference scheduled to be held in Copenhagen in December, in which parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will meet for the last time on a government level before the climate agreement comes up for renewal. The Kyoto Protocol on climate change and global warming expires in 2012.

"If you don't have a vote in your parliament or a vote in Copenhagen, you need to go home and do something that will actually help your country sign on," Clinton added.

Calling Seoul "an example" of what cities can do to reduce carbon and move swiftly on the climate change issue, Clinton also emphasized that economic development and green growth can go hand in hand.

"We never ask anyone to bankrupt themselves. We just need to make sure that all the (economic and environmental) questions are even-footed."

South Korea's Prime Minister Han Seung-soo emphasized Seoul's commitment to the green growth strategy.

"The Korean government is focusing on turning climate change into an opportunity," he said. "Under President Lee Myung-bak's low carbon, green growth plan, the Korean government aims to transform the way we operate our economy."

South Korea is seeking to introduce a carbon tax beginning in 2010 under President Lee's plan, allocating an estimated 11 trillion won (about US billion) annually for the green growth scheme. South Korea may be required to join a worldwide greenhouse gas reduction plan in 2013, after the Kyoto Protocol expires.

Calling the ongoing climate change issue a "worse than the worst case scenario," Toronto Mayor David Miller emphasized what he called the "Green Age."

"I believe this is also an opportunity to do something unique. Using power like wind and solar, building modern infrastructure and replacing the old... is all part of the new Green Age," he said. "To continue the momentum, all cities must be resolved in working together. It's not a matter of choice, but necessity."