5 June 2009: During an official visit to Washington DC, US, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon discussed climate change with US Energy Secretary Steven Chu.

They talked about international cooperation to deal with climate change, in particular mitigation efforts in developed countries and efforts to bring in the broader international community, including through cooperation with developing countries.
Ban also addressed this topic while meeting with a bipartisan group of US senators. He underscored the need for US leadership on climate change and discussed US financial support of the UN.
On 4 June, Ban had a telephone conversation with Taro Aso, Prime Minister of Japan, about climate change and other topics. The Secretary-General welcomed Japan’s commitment to address climate change, underlining its strong domestic actions and support for reaching an effective, inclusive, international agreement. Ban stressed the importance of showing leadership by setting an ambitious mid-term emissions reduction target for his country for 2020, in line with those the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated, to avoid potentially catastrophic consequences from climate change. Japan said it would announce its mid-term targets soon. [UN Highlights of the Noon Briefing]