Published: 2009-12-08 07:30      (Xinhua)

source: http://world.globaltimes.cn/europe/2009-12/490093.html 

More than 100 world leaders will gather next week in Copenhagen to add to global efforts to fight climate change as the UN Climate Change Conference got underway on Monday in the Danish capital.

"We are here today because we are all committed to take action," Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told delegates to the conference at its inauguration in Copenhagen, where over the next two weeks negotiators from around the globe will try to seal a deal on global warming.

"The magnitude of challenge before us is to translate this political will into a strong common approach: To forge a deal that will provide for effective global solutions," he said.

The Danish prime minister said 110 heads of state or government will come to Copenhagen to attend the conference next week. "Their presence reflects an unprecedented mobilization of political determination to combat climate change," he added.

More than 15,000 participants, including delegates from more than 190 countries, were taking part in the conference that is seen as offering a historical opportunity to step up international action on climate change.

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, has stressed the urgency for a deal this year, saying a climate change deal in Copenhagen "is an unequivocal requirement to stop climate change from slipping out of control."

As negotiators started the talks that are expected to produce new emissions reduction targets after 2012, when the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires, pressure was growing for developed countries to commit to ambitious targets on cutting emissions and funding for developing nations.

At a press conference Sunday, de Boer spoke of three layers of action that governments must agree to in Copenhagen: fast and effective implementation of immediate action on climate change; ambitious commitments to cut and limit emissions, including start-up funding and a long-term funding commitment; and a long-term shared vision on a low-emissions future for all.