UN chief urges leaders to defy climate change sceptics

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged environment ministers to reject attempts by sceptics to undermine efforts to forge a climate change deal, stressing that global warming poses "a clear and present danger".

In a message read by a UN official, Mr Ban referred to a still-burning controversy over several mistakes made in a 2007 report issued by the UN-affiliated Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which drew widespread criticisms and sparked calls for the resignation of its chairman, Rajendra Pachauri.

The report's conclusion that Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035 turned out to be incorrect and bolstered arguments from climate sceptics that fears of global warming were overblown.

Despite the failure to forge a binding deal on curbing heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions at a UN conference in Copenhagen last December, Mr Ban said the meeting made an important step forward by setting a target to keep global temperature from rising and establishing a program of climate aid to poorer nations.

"To maintain the momentum, I urge you to reject last-ditch attempts by climate sceptics to derail your negotiations by exaggerating shortcomings in the ... report," Mr Ban said in the statement read at the start of an annual UN meeting of environmental officials from 130 countries on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.

"Tell the world that you unanimously agree that climate change is a clear and present danger," Mr Ban said.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said time was running out, but expressed confidence that a binding climate change deal could be forged at the next climate change summit later this year in Cancun, Mexico.

"I'm convinced that we're still not too late," he said at the Bali conference.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia will hold an informal meeting of all environmental ministers and officials from 130 countries on Friday in Bali to discuss ways of ensuring that a binding treaty on greenhouse gas cutbacks could be forged in Cancun.