Financial crisis is not an excuse: Sha Zukang

By Zhang Tingting
China.org.cn staff reporter

"Clean technologies have proven their worth again and again..." said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message to the Conference.

"So far no country has tried to use the current financial crisis as a pretext to impair their efforts in addressing problems concerning the Millennium Development Goals, the food crisis, or climate change. That is very encouraging," said Sha Zukang, UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs, in Beijing on Saturday.

Mr. Sha made the observation at a press conference held after the wrap-up of the Beijing High-level Conference on Climate Change: Technology Development and Technology Transfer, which took place on Nov. 7-8.

Mr. Sha also emphasized that the financial turmoil which has swept many countries should not be used either by developed or by developing countries as an excuse to cut the financial commitment earmarked for conducting climate-related activities and for other objectives involving sustainable global development.

The two-day conference concluded on Saturday with the approval of a statement and summary. 67 countries provided over 700 participants from ministerial-level leadership and related international organizations, enterprises, academies, and NGOs, who gathered to discuss the status of clean technologies and the barriers to technology-transfer, as well as mechanisms to overcome them.

"Of particular value at the Conference was that experts, policy-makers and other stakeholders engaged together on critical issues, free from the constraints of the negotiating table," said Mr. Sha Zukang at the Conference's closing ceremony, adding that "we saw areas where real differences persist, but also areas of common interest and possible convergence."

Also referring to the relationship between financial crisis and the cause of climate change, Xie Zhenhua, Vice Chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission of China, said at the press conference that "as a far-reaching concern, addressing climate change does not conflict with coping with the current financial crisis while the challenge imposed by the financial crisis might be transformed into an opportunity through rebuilding economic structures to advance the cause of addressing climate change."

The meeting was held in the run-up to the next Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Poznan, Poland in Dec. 2008, and Mr. Xie said that he was confident that the Conference would contribute positively to the forthcoming climate change negotiations in Poznan.

The next conference on climate change and technology transfer, sharing similar functions and objectives to the one that has just concluded in Beijing, will be hosted by the Government of India, prior to the 15th Session of the Conference of the Parties to UNFCCC to be held in 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

(China.org.cn November 9, 2008)