Ban Ki-Moon and Al Gore call on executives to take an active role in helping save the climate More than 700 business leaders from
around the world gathered in Copenhagen yesterday for the start of a three-day climate conference looking at the influence and effect of business on climate. UN Secretary-General UN Ban Ki-Moon and former US Vice President Al Gore were in attendance at the conference and gave impassioned speeches about the need for action to the assembled delegates at the Bella Center venue. The summit is seen as an important prelude to the UN Climate Conference being held in the same venue in December where a successive agreement to the Kyoto Protocol is hoped to be reached. In his speech, Ki-Moon highlighted the importance of taking action now, despite a global recession. ‘What we cannot afford is more short-sighted approaches,’ he said. ‘If we have learned anything from the financial crisis, it is that we must put an end to unethical and irresponsible behaviour and the tyrannical demand for short-term profit.’ Ki-Moon called for market incentives to promote long-term investment in clean energy and for the delegates to lobby their governments to ‘seal the deal’.
Gore made a welcome return to Denmark and urged delegates to act now, ‘because mother nature doesn’t do bailouts’.