UN secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on governments to make rapid progress in their negotiations so that a new climate deal could be reached in Copenhagen, Denmark in December, Xinhua reported.
"We can not afford limited progress. We need rapid progress," Ban said at the Third World Climate Conference in Geneva, organized by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
Little progress has been made in climate talks to work out a new agreement and replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on reducing the gas emissions to avoid global warming.
Ban said a deal was needed to reduce gas emissions. "We need a deal that will enable deep cuts in emissions...that promotes green growth...that will provide the resources and structures needed for adaptation."
"We will pay a high price if we fail...Not just future generations...but this generation," he said.
Some 20 heads of state or government, as well as 80 government ministers, attended the high-level segment of the conference scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
The WMO organized the first two World Climate Conferences in 1979 and 1990. Both conferences were considered groundbreaking in their impacts, heralding awareness of climate change and new observational and research capacities to monitor and understand the climate.
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