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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has emerged as an influential leader in the second half of his inaugural year by taking the initiative on climate change. While Ban's inauguration in January was hailed by Koreans, he received only a lukewarm welcome from the world press and UN delegates. UN diplomatic circles believed that while the former South Korean foreign minister might be an expert on Korean issues, he wasn't so knowledgeable about global problems.
But Ban's leadership has been gaining plaudits in the second half of the year thanks to his efforts to battle climate change, which he began just after his inauguration. At the UN World Summit in September he made some remarks on the issue which impressed many world leaders. "We hold the future in our hands," he said. "Together, we must ensure that our grandchildren will not have to ask why we failed to do the right thing, and let them suffer the consequences." He has contributed two essays warning of the crisis for the Washington Post. "First came the Industrial Revolution, then the technology revolution, then our modern era of globalization. We stand at the threshold of another great change: the age of green economics," Ban wrote in the piece "A New Green Economics" published in the newspaper on Monday.
To get a first-hand look at the effects of global warming, Ban in November visited Antarctica to observe the melting glaciers and the Amazon basin where great swaths of rainforest are being felled. It was the first journey of its kind for a UN secretary-general, and journalists from leading media outlets including the BBC, AFP and Reuters accompanied him. The journalists praised Ban for his efforts in tackling the global issue. Even some in UN diplomatic circles say that Ban is the only person who can turn around the U.S. and China, the two major nations that remain lukewarm on reducing greenhouse gases. Some believe that the criticism he suffered in his early days in office may have motivated Ban to beef up his leadership efforts.
Next week Ban will address a UN climate change conference in Bali, held under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, where he is expected to urge the participants to formulate a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012. The Financial Times newspaper said, "(Ban's) forthright stand on climate change may be an indication that the early criticism he faced has encouraged him to develop a personality that others had claimed was lacking."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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