20 November 2008: In a video message to the symposium on climate change held at the Korean Academy of Science and Technology in Gyunggi-Do, Korea, from 20-21 November 2008, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon stressed that the science of climate change is clear and its effects risk getting worse.

He called for a “decisive and swift” response, warning that future
generations would otherwise face greater risk. He underscored that the
“cost of inaction will exceed the costs of action by several orders of
magnitude.” On the international climate negotiations, he said the next
round taking place in Poznan, Poland, in December 2008 should send a
signal of strong international resolve to reach a climate agreement in
Copenhagen in 2009. He welcomed Korea’s “Low Carbon Green Growth”
policy and plans to use green energy technologies.
Noting that Korea
has a less historic responsibility for climate change than some
industrialized countries, Ban hoped Korea would “seize the opportunity
to improve its international status” by participating more actively in
international processes designed to mitigate climate change and
underscored the timeliness of the Symposium. [UN Press Release]