Financial crisis no excuse to slow carbon fight: UN climate chief

The world financial crisis must not be used as an excuse for backsliding on efforts to curb global carbon emissions in the fight against climate change, a top UN environmental official warned Thursday.

"Of course the financial crisis will have a serious impact on this process, and is already having an impact on this process. But I would argue that to use the financial crisis as an excuse not to act on climate change would basically amount to setting yourself up for the next financial crisis," said Yvo de Boer, head of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.

De Boer was speaking at a conference in Warsaw drawing governments and leaders from the energy, steel, cement and aluminium sectors, which are among the major emitters of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas blamed for global warming.

Many businesses and governments around the world have expressed concern that ever-deeper commitments to slash carbon emissions will dent their economies in difficult times, but De Boer argued that they must think far ahead.

"For example, within the next five to 10 years we will be replacing about 40 percent of the power-generating capacity worldwide. If, in the light of the financial crisis, a decision is made to go for cheap and dirty technology, as in the past, that technology will still be around in 30 to 50 years," he said.

"The question for me is whether you wish to be the engine of change or the subject of change," he added.

Poland is playing host to a handful of environment-themed events in the run up to a December 1-12 UN climate conference in the western city of Poznan.

The goal of the Poznan conference is to pave the way for talks in the Danish capital Copenhagen in December 2009, when a proposed UN deal, the most ambitious environmental pact ever attempted, is meant to be agreed.

The deal would take effect from the end of 2012, when the current provisions of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, more widely known as the Kyoto Protocol, expires.

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