9 July 2009: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged every head of state or government to do more to address climate change. His statement came as the leaders of the G8 industrialized economies and the seventeen participants in the Major Economies Forum (MEF) on Energy and Climate released agreements indicating that they “recognize the scientific view that the increase in global average temperature above pre-industrial levels ought not to exceed 2 degrees C,” and noting that they “will work between now and Copenhagen, with each other and under the Convention, to identify a global goal for substantially reducing global emissions by 2050.”

Secretary-General Ban welcomed their commitments, but emphasized that, “In order to achieve such a global goal, developed countries must lead by example in making firm commitments to reduce their emissions by 2020 on the order of the 25 to 40 per cent below 1990 levels that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tells us is required. It is disappointing to note that thus far, the mid-term emissions targets announced by developed countries in the MEF are not in this range.” [UN News story] [UN Secretary-General’s statement] [G8 Summit documents]