Press Conference at Seattle Chamber of Commerce

Ladies and Gentlemen of the media,

Good afternoon, it's a great pleasure.

I am very pleased to visit Seattle, once again, even though this is the first time for any Secretary-General of the United Nations to [visit] Seattle.

I just had lunch with some of the very distinguished business leaders of the very distinguished Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce. We discussed some of the world's pressing challenges and the role that business can play. In particular we discussed climate change.

In just six weeks, nations will get together in Copenhagen, Denmark, to work on a new global climate framework.

We know that failure to act on climate change will have devastating consequences. We also know that this crisis presents an opportunity.

A successful agreement in Copenhagen will send critical signals to governments, business, and societies everywhere. It can help to unleash a clean-energy revolution that will deliver economic growth and lower carbon emissions.

Business has a [key] role to play. That was my message today.

I also encouraged more businesses to join the UN Global Compact, the largest and most successful corporate responsibility initiative in the world. It now has more than 7,000 corporate participants and stakeholders committed to principles on human rights, labour standards, anti-corruption and environmental sustainability.

More than 400 companies have signed on to the Global Compact's “Caring for Climate” programme.

Today I heard many examples of corporate responsibility and action. I encourage you to highlight them.

You, the media also are important partners too. Without your help we cannot achieve our objectives. And again, I count on your support and cooperation in this regard. You are the connector between the United Nations and business, government and the international community at large.

The United Nations is working around the world on a broad agenda. At this time, of great economic pain and uncertainty, it is more important than ever for us to redouble our efforts to defeat hunger and poverty. We are mobilizing to make the final push to achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Today, I would like to highlight the Millennium Development Goal on which we have made the least progress but on which we need to make the most: maternal health. It is a scandal that over half a million women die each year in the process of giving life. I'm pleased that Bill and Melinda Gates and I have finalized our plans this morning to jointly lead an effort to mobilize all the political, organizational and financial resources necessary to put an end to our shameful collective global failure to address maternal, newborn and child health needs.

We're also deeply engaged in the fight against hunger. We have developed a comprehensive strategy to address the ongoing global crisis including reversing the levitating under-investment in agriculture. At least 20 billion dollars in new resources have been pledged to this effort and the United Nations stands ready to help implement national food-security plans in a wide range of developing countries.

Finally, I'd like to flag for you the efforts we're making in the area of disarmament and non-proliferation. In the 21st Century, we cannot afford to follow the same path as we did in the previous Century, where the threat of nuclear annihilation was allowed to hand over our heads.

Last year, I proposed a five-point plan to address the situation and was very pleased to see [U.S.] President [Barrack] Obama follow-up on one of my proposals by convening a summit-level meeting of the Security Council in September. Now we need to press our efforts for ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty [CTBT] and a successful Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference in May of next year.

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, we welcome your scrutiny and we ask for your support.

Thank you very much, and I'll now be happy to answer your questions.

Q: After Copenhagen, how long do you think that it could take to get a binding agreement?

SG: Our target and aim is to have a binding agreement in Copenhagen. Now, considering all these political difficulties in the negotiating process, while we will do our best, we will try to have a substantive ambitious target agreed. I'm sure that we will have an agreement there but that requires all of the countries, particularly developed countries including the United States, to come out with ambitious targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions by the level recommended by the [IPCC] Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change by 2020, and they should be prepared to provide the substantial financial support to the most vulnerable developing countries to adapt and mitigate themselves. These will be very crucially important elements which we'll have to agree.

Q: Do you expect Heads of State will come to Copenhagen and how far until the review?

SG: That is not yet decided. We'll have to see the progress of our negotiations. In the Bangkok negotiations, we made substantive progress, but not enough. There is another negotiating period in Barcelona, Spain, early next month. That will be the final negotiating process before we meet again in Copenhagen. There have been some ideas of having a summit-level meeting again, but I'm in the process of discussing with world leaders and I am closely discussing this matter with Prime Minister [Anders] Rasmussen of Denmark who is going to be the President of this conference in Copenhagen. But what is important is that leaders of Member States should demonstrate their political leadership as had been demonstrated in September during the United Nations Summit Meeting on Climate Change.

Q: How long do you think it will take to get a binding agreement?

SG: After Copenhagen, we may not be able to expect that we'll be able to agree on all the detailed matters on all the elements. We will have a broad agreement, which will be very substantive. Then, on the basis of this agreement, we will have to continue to build upon these agreements. There's going to be a Conference of Parties 16 meeting in Mexico. Between Copenhagen and Mexico, we need to continue our negotiations.

Q: What do you see as the role for private companies like Boeing, in terms of meeting those goals of aiding developing nations?

SG: Of course, that is the main reason why I had a very good meeting with business CEOs in Seattle. Wherever I visit, whenever I have an opportunity, I meet with business leaders. In addressing those global challenges like Climate Change, we need tripartite partnerships: Governments, business communities, and civil communities. Everybody has a role to play in addressing Climate Change. The business community can play a significantly important role as governments which make the policies, which make the priorities, but it is after all the business community which leads by implementing these policies, by investing money, by making their business in a greener, cleaner, sustainable way, by investing in innovative technology. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary for the business communities to be committed and to lead this campaign, and I'm very much encouraged by such a strong commitment demonstrated by the business leaders in the Seattle Chamber of Commerce.

Q: What, more specifically, would you like to see the US do? What role can the US play on a more global level as far as Climate Change and environmental issues? Do you have anything specific in mind?

SG: I'm very encouraged by the strong commitment of the Obama administration. Since they won, and even during his candidacy, he promised and was committed that the U.S. should take a strong leadership role. That is what he expressed during the summit meeting in the United Nations last month. Now, I expect, first of all, that the US lead this campaign by coming out with an ambitious mid-term target to cut greenhouse gas emissions, as been recommended by the IPCC. I know that the [U.S.] Senate is still deliberating this domestic legislation.

I sincerely hope that the Senators, leadership of Senate and the [US] Senators will take the necessary action before the U.S. negotiators come to Copenhagen. By enacting this domestic legislation, the U.S. negotiators will be able to commit themselves to this. Even with this domestic legislation it may not be sufficient, but it can have huge political impact on negotiators of other countries. You may have seen very encouraging statements expressed by the leaders of many major developing countries like China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa. They are ready to make some political compromises only if and only when the United State is ready to do that. Therefore, the leadership and initiative of the US will be crucially important at this time. We have only six weeks to go –we do not have much time. I'm going to engage myself with not only the U.S. Government but also with Senators of the United States.

Q: What specific factors would constitute an effective bill?

SG: I don't want to engage in more detailed technical issues. By Legislating a domestic bill, the U.S. can send out a strong message of their own commitment. This can have great impact on other countries which may be reluctant to get on board. Such a strong effort by the United Nations and by myself as Secretary-General, I can tell you that the Climate change issue has been placed on top of the international agenda. Only three years ago, there wasn't much debate on Climate Change. Now, the leaders of the whole world understand that this is a very serious and urgent issue which demands action. That is great progress.

But what is more important at this time is that leaders of the world should come out with a concrete agreement, which will be binding, comprehensive, equitable and balanced on the basis of common but differentiated responsibilities between developing and developed countries. Why, then, am I emphasizing the leadership of the U.S. and other developed countries? Since this is a global challenge which requires all countries on board for a common and long term goal, every country has to be there, other wise you cannot insure that this will be implemented, since Climate Change impacts all countries of this plante. Therefore, leadership of industrialized countries, particularly the U.S. will be key at this time.

Q: What more do you plan to do specifically in the next six weeks? You mentioned talking with US Senators. Can you be specific about what you plan to do?

SG: I'll continue my role as Secretary-General to urge government leaders to come out with ambitious targets, to come out with substantive financial support packages for the purpose of helping developing countries in their goal to mitigate and adapt. The role of the UNITED NATIONS is to provide a forum for the nations to negotiate between themselves. It is not for the UNITED NATIONS to negotiate. There should be some clear understanding. We are not the negotiators: we will try to facilitate and I will do my best to raise the importance [of this issue] on the political level. We need the support and active commitment of all the Member States of the UNITED NATIONS. That's what I'll continue [to do] until we meet in Copenhagen.

Q: Could you elaborate a little bit more on your meeting with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation [inaudible]?

SG: Yes. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been and active supporter and strong advocate for all development agendas, in particular the Millennium Development Goals, which target must be met by 2015. That was one of the major topics that I discussed with both Bill and Melinda Gates this morning. As you know, I'm going to convene and official summit meeting on Millennium Development Goals in September of next year. This has already been decided. I have invited Bill Gates' active participation and contribution to make this MDG summit meeting a great success, as he did last year for the MDG summit meeting in 2008.

More specifically, we discussed how he can work together with the UNITED NATIONS and with me in strengthening the capacity in our efforts to help reduce the maternal mortality rate and child mortality rate. I told him that this just unacceptable that a woman dies every minute needlessly from complications of pregnancy and delivering babies. Just to give life, a woman dies every minute. We must have seen already at least twenty women die during our press conference. This is just an unacceptable situation. I commended his initiative on maternal, newborn and child [health] initiative. It is a very good initiative and we will work together. We have agreed on a strategy on how we can strengthen common efforts. Bill and Melinda Gates have fully supported this and committed themselves to participate and to make this happen to prevent the unnecessary death of women.

Maternal mortality has often been regarded as a women's issue, but this is wrong. This is a wrong perception. This is much more than just a women's issue. If women are not healthy, the whole society will not be healthy. When women are healthy, they can have healthy babies and children, and society as a whole can be healthy. That's the main argument that I'm urging and I'm going to continue to focus on and emphasize it as one of the important targets that I want to achieve. Unfortunately, among many MDGs, this is the slowest moving goal. That is very unfortunate. We must rectify this situation.

Q: In your talk this morning, you mentioned travelling to the Artic and Antarctica because you wanted to see yourself the effects of Climate Change. I'm curious: was there any particular trip or a specific moment that was personally significant in United understanding how this is changing the world?

SG: All my visits to all these places have been significant and have given me great lessons. As you know, during the last two and a half years, I have been travelling to all places, wherever and whenever I was able to see for myself and experience for myself the impact coming from Climate Change. As you know, I started from my visit to Antarctica in November 2007, and I visited the Amazon River basin where I could see the impact of deforestation of the rain forest, and I visited Lake Chad, where I saw the drying lakebed, which once used to be a sea-like huge lake. It had shrunk to 1/10th of its size. That was again frightening and alarming. And I have visited Mongolia, I have visited some African countries, I have seen expanding desertification, and most recently, last September, I visited the Artic. Standing on the Artic ice, I sent out a strong message about what I saw there. It was a frightening experience when I saw the glaciers were melting much faster –much, much, faster. By 2037, we may see the Artic virtually ice-free. Then it will never be called the North Arctic anymore.

It was quite a frightening experience, so we must take urgent action now, otherwise we will end up seeing the sea level rise by at least two meters, which will be devastating to many low-lying coastal areas and many small island developing countries. To them this is an existential threat, a life-or-death issue.

Last September I attended a summit meeting of Small Island Developing States. They were appealing to the whole world to limit the global temperature rise within 1.5degrees by 2015. The IPCC has recommended that this global temperature rise should be limited by 2 degrees Centigrade. My position is that leaders should be able to agree in Copenhagen that the global temperature rise should be limited and controlled within the limit recommended by science, maybe 2 degrees or politically 1.5 degrees, but that depends upon how the Member States will negotiate.

Thank you very much.

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