외교부

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Honorable Dr. Han Seung-soo, UNSG's Special Envoy on Climate Change,

Distinguished Ambassadors and Participants,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

 

It is indeed a great honor and pleasure for me to welcome all of you participating in the 7th International Meeting on Climate Change and Sustainable Development here in Seoul. As the host of today's event, let me first express my deep gratitude to Honorable Dr. Han Seung-soo, United Nations Secretary General's Special Envoy on Climate Change, for his presence today and his enlightening speech just delivered before me. My special thanks also go to the distinguished participants who have traveled a long way to be here with us this morning.

 

 

Today's event is the 7th in the series of international meetings we have hosted on an annual basis since 2001, with the aim of offering a forum on climate change and enhancing public awareness of the gravity of the problem.

 

This year's meeting is taking place at the most opportune time, in view of the fact that the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change or IPCC was released only a couple of months ago, raising alarm about climate change. The year 2007 is indeed a critical year for renewing and consolidating international efforts to address this issue of our common concern. And I hope today's meeting will contribute to creating a new sense of urgency in our collective efforts to combat the gravest challenge facing humanity in the 21st century. 

 

 

As was pointed out by the Stern Report of October 2006, damages that may be caused by climate change are long-term and uncertain, while the costs of preventing them are short-term and certain. This asymmetry has hindered the international community from effectively joining forces to address this important issue.  

 

It is the aforementioned IPCC report that has virtually ended the debate on the scientific uncertainty of climate change. The report warns us that the global temperature will rise up to 6.4 degrees celsius and the sea level up to 59 centimeters by the end of the 21st century if our current pattern of development that depends heavily upon fossil fuels is maintained. Considering that the rise of global temperature for the past ten thousand years was just less than 1 degree celsius, you can easily see how serious the IPCC's warning is.

 

Climate change is certainly taking place. And we know that human activities are responsible for this. Therefore, it is time for us to set a clear goal of transforming our society to a low-carbon society and invest our efforts in developing a cost-efficient system that will effectively deal with climate change.

 

 

As we all know, the world community adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992. The Kyoto Protocol was subsequently adopted in 1997 with specific emission targets set for Annex I countries, the developed countries, which need to be reached over the first commitment period of 2008 through 2012.

 

Despite its ambitious start, the Kyoto Protocol has revealed a number of limitations. I believe the two biggest shortcomings of the Protocol have made it difficult to ensure its flexibility. First, the Protocol categorizes the membership into only two groups: developed and developing countries. Second, there is no other way to fulfill obligations under the Protocol than to cut down on emission levels below the base year.  Due to these shortcomings, the Kyoto Protocol failed to have some of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters join the global efforts against climate change.

 

The Post-2012 regime should be flexible enough to enable many countries to take part in the global reduction efforts in various ways. A sector-based approach, which I believe will be discussed in today’s meeting, is one example. I hope that more innovative ideas will be presented in the Post-2012 regime; ideas that will be something more than just an extended Kyoto Protocol. I anticipate that this meeting will produce a number of constructive ideas and provide a way forward in our collective efforts to fight climate change.

 

 

In the first half of this year, many countries presented their own strategies against climate change; just to name a few, the EU’s Long-term Strategy on Climate Change, the U.S.’s Climate Change Initiative, Japan's "Cool Earth 50", and China’s "National Climate Change Programme." I am delighted that this meeting will provide an opportunity to learn more about these and other programs including Korea’s "Comprehensive National Action Plan on Climate Change."

 

Each of these initiatives contains a vast array of contents including long-term goals set for around 2050, medium range goals to be met by around 2020, principles for building the Post-2012 regime, and ideas on new forms of international cooperation and endeavors targeting sector-based emissions. I hope this meeting will also serve as a forum to discuss how best we can coordinate these initiatives in a mutually complementary way.

 

 

One of the main topics of today’s meeting is the potential of the carbon market. The term "Carbon Credit" is becoming more and more familiar today. Those of us who study and work in this field on a daily basis are no longer the only people cognizant of the fact that we put a price on carbon emissions and even trade them. The public is increasingly aware of it and more and more people would understand that the activation of the carbon market could play a pivotal role in dealing with climate change.

 

The Kyoto Protocol contributed to creating the global carbon market. With the Kyoto mechanism, core elements of which include Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and Joint Implementation (JI), the global carbon market has continued to expand. The total amount of carbon transaction reached 10 billion US dollars in 2005, and it tripled to over 30 billion US dollars in 2006.  The market is expected to grow even more rapidly in the future. While the current size of the carbon market is about only one fourth the total size of Official Development Assistance provided to developing countries, there is great potential for the carbon market to increase in size.

Indeed, the carbon market is an essential pillar in our battle against climate change and will be at the heart of the Post-2012 regime. Nowadays, a number of Korean enterprises are participating in CDM projects individually or by forming joint funds. CDM can create win-win situations by contributing not only to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but also to the sustainable development of developing countries. In this regard, I hope that this meeting will nurture greater interest in CDM projects among Korean companies.

 

 

Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

Climate change is an enormous challenge to humanity, but it also provides us with a new opportunity to work together to protect our “one and only Earth” and to transform our global community into a more environment-friendly one.  This process, however, demands of us patience, hard work and determination. We, therefore, must take up the challenge of this magnitude in a collective and coordinated manner.

 

           I am confident that our shared commitment to combating climate change will lead us to a successful conclusion of this meeting, which I hope will add another building block to the on-going international efforts.

 

Thank you very much.