* Original Video Message by H.E. Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of
the United Nations
Your excellency president Lee Myung-bak
of the Republic of Korea,
Honorable doctor Han Seung Soo, Chairman of Global
Green Growth Institute,
Lord Nicolas Stern, Excellencies,? distinguished
delegates, ladies and gentlemen,
I am pleased to express my best wishes to the East Asia Climate Forum 2010
and the launch of the Global Green Growth Institute.
Climate change is one of the great challenges of our time. But it also
represents a tremendous opportunity for building a new clean energy future that
benefits all. International cooperation grounded in national actions is central
to realizing this opportunity.
I congratulate the work of the East Asia Climate Forum by sharing best
practices? member countries upbringing forward a successful transition to the
green economy. I would also like to congratulate you on the launch of the Global
Green Growth Institute which President Lee announced at the Copenhagen Climate
Summit.
The institute has an important role to play as a think-tank and laboratory
for assisting developing countries in their progress towards a low carbon
economy.
I’m confident that the Global Green Growth Institute can support United
Naions’ effort to reduce extreme poverty, promote sustainable development and
strengthen global partnerships for the common good.
Together we can work to realize green growth. Together we can make this
year’s meeting in Cancun an important step-forward.
Please accept my best wishes for a successful meeting.
Thank you.
* Original Video Message
by Lord Nicholas Stern
I am very sorry not to be able to be
with you today.
But I do have the great pleasure of welcoming you as a member
of the board of 3GI to this very important meeting at the beginning of our
work.
I want to cover 3 things in my brief
introduction:
First, why this work is so important;
Secondly, why is so
fortunate that Korea is taking such a strong lead; and,
Thirdly, the nature
of the work which we have to do as we set off, and how we do it.
Let me begin with why this matters so much.
Climate change is enormous threat. It is a risk of extraordinary dimensions to
the future of human beings and their relationship with the planet. If we go on
as we are, we risk temperatures we have not seen for hundreds of millions of
years with implication that hundreds of millions of people, possibly billions of
people would have to move that would lead to conflict on a major scale if
history is any guide.
And that takes me to my second point. Korea
has shown serious actions over the last half century or so. Just how powerful
new ideas new ways of doing things can be in generating growth and the huge
increase in the living standards of her people.
Countries around the world particularly
developing countries, but not only developing countries, look to Korea for
examples and lessons on how to generate growth. And Korea, too, has
been taking the lead in this new and latest energy and industrial
revolution. We need to think, for example of Korea’s stimulus
package in 2008 and 2009 which led the world in focusing on new technologies,
low carbon growth, energy efficiency, and so on.
Korea has so much to offer, not simply
through what it has done over the last 50 or 60 years but also, what it is doing
and will do over the coming few years.
That’s why all those in Board would like to
thank so much Korea for taking this lead.
I would like to thank particularly
today all those from the Government of Korea including President who is here
with us today and showing the very strong support for this fundamentally
important initiative. We are so lucky that Korea is giving this
leadership.
Finally, few words on how to go about the
task, how the 3GI is planning to go about its task in these early years.
The challenge is partly on economics, partly
technology, other analytical disciplines, too, in thinking through how we put
together low carbon growth.
But this is something that has to be done in the
circumstances of particular countries. There is no single model for this. There
are technologies. There are policies. We could all learn from each other. We can
look at the fundamentals and we must do that.
But basically good examples are
made on the ground at with the leadership of the country concerned, at the
invitation of the country concerned, with the strong participation of that
country
That’s why it’s so important to begin with
just a few but very important countries. Countries with different
circumstance, countries which are going to tackle different problems in
different ways with similar motivation to find low carbon growth, to take a lead
in this new industrial revolution
So careful analytical work
constructed in countries, with countries, that are actually going
to make the policies.
This will be the right way to generate the powerful
examples that we need, not just of course the countries themselves that are
engaged in this, that’s a fundamental importance, but the powerful examples from
which everybody else can learn, everybody else, rich countries and poor
countries can learn.
This method of work that has already been initiated
seems to me to be a fundamental importance and exactly and correctly oriented to
the challenges we face in driving forward this new energy and industrial
revolution
Thank you very much.
