Tiempo Climate Newswatch

Ban Ki-moon, United Nations secretary general, told a high-level meeting of heads of government in New York that "the time for doubt [over climate change] has passed." He called for a new global commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions. "We know enough to act," he said. "If we don't act now, the impact of climate change will be devastating."

Lawrence Gonzi, prime minister of Malta, said that a mechanism was needed to devise a global strategy on climate "in a more cohesive and concerted manner," avoiding the current fragmentation and paying particular attention to the needs of small island states. "It is imperative that all actors involved in climate risk reduction take a unified stand," he said. Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, welcomed the event as an example of the "unprecedented momentum of public and political pressure" on environmental issues. Citing the recent agreement on eliminating hydrochlorofluorocarbons as "just one more signal that shows that the United Nations is perfectly capable of convening international consensus if indeed Member States are willing to come to the table and work together," he said that "a qualitatively different political understanding" should now underpin the next stage of the climate negotiations to be held in December in Bali, Indonesia.

George W Bush, United States president, has called on "all the world's largest producers of greenhouse gas emissions, including developed and developing nations," to come together and "set a long-term goal for reducing" greenhouse emissions. He was speaking at a meeting of sixteen high-emission nations, the United Nations and the European Union in Washington DC that was hosted by the White House later in the week of the United Nations high-level event.

"By next summer, we will convene a meeting of heads of state to finalize the goal and other elements of this approach, including a strong and transparent system for measuring our progress toward meeting the goal we set," Bush continued. "Only by doing the necessary work this year will it be possible to reach a global consensus at the United Nations in 2009." There was scepticism regarding Bush's claim to leadership on the climate issue. "This is a total charade," said one delegate, speaking anonymously to the BBC. "The president has said he will lead on climate change but he won't agree binding emissions, while other nations will. He says he will lead on technology but then he asks other countries to contribute funds, without saying how much he'll contribute himself. It's humiliating for him - a total humiliation."

Exceptional warmth in the High Arctic has led to unprecedented changes in the local environment, according to researchers from Queen's University, Ontario, Canada. "Everything has changed dramatically in the watershed we observed [on Melville Island]," reported Scott Lamoureux, referring to slips and other changes in the landscape resulting from melting permafrost. "It’s something we’d envisioned for the future - but to see it happening now is quite remarkable."

Accompanying the warmth, the summer extent of the Arctic sea ice shrunk to a 29-year low. "The decline in the amount of thick ice that survives the summer melt season this year is quite remarkable," said Josefino Comiso at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the United States. "The 2007 sea ice record is meaningful because it is an accentuation of a steadily downward trend in ice cover that is very apparent over the past several years, commented Stephen Vavrus from the Center for Climatic Research, Madison, Wisconsin. Comiso is concerned that positive feedback is at work. "When there is less sea ice in the summer, the Arctic Ocean receives more heat," he observed. "The warmer water makes it harder for the ice to recover in the winter, and, therefore, there is a higher likelihood that sea ice will retreat farther during the summer. This process repeats itself year after year."