Climate change at top of world agenda, Annan says

Source: Reuters

The environment and climate change top the list of challenges for the international community and failing to face them could ruin development, former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Friday.

"If we do not get the climate under control, if we do not confront the challenges of the environment, every other effort we are making can be washed aside," Annan told journalists after addressing the Norwegian Labour Party.

Scientists widely say human activity, especially emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, is warming the Earth's climate.

They say it poses risks of rising sea levels, more floods, droughts and expanding deserts that could displace millions of people and eventually cause economic, political and humanitarian crises.

Annan, who stepped down at the end of 2006 after 10 years at the helm of the United Nations, said the environment would be "the major constraint" on growth and development globally.

"We cannot continuing consuming the resources of the world as if there were no tomorrow, as if there were no future generations coming after us," he said.

He also stressed the need for multilateral cooperation.

"All the major challenges that we face today cannot be handled by one country, however powerful that country is," he said. "It does require international cooperation."

He said that also applied to such areas as the fight against infectious diseases, environmental degradation, terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and organised international crime.

Last year, while still U.N. chief, Annan said there was a "frightening lack of leadership" in combating global warming and urged 189 nations at climate talks in Nairobi to cut greenhouse gas emissions and join the Kyoto Protocol.