UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — UN chief Ban Ki-moon said a summit on climate change here on Monday had delivered "a clear call from world leaders for a breakthrough" at key talks looming in December.
"This event has sent a powerful political signal to the world, and to the Bali conference, that there is the will and the determination at the highest level, to break with the past and act decisively," Ban added.
He called it "a truly landmark event."
The December 3-14 conference in Bali, Indonesia, is tasked with setting down a roadmap for negotiations towards a new planetary deal on global warming after the first phase of the UN's Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012.
"I now believe we have a major political commitment to achieving that," the UN secretary general said.
Monday's summit was attended by around 150 countries, more than 80 of them at the level of head of state or government, making it the seniormost gathering in UN history on global warming.
It was not a pledging or negotiating session, but aimed at pushing climate change up the political agenda and clearing some of the diplomatic haze surrounding Bali.
"I heard the world's leaders confirm that climate change is indeed happening and is largely caused by human activity," said Ban, giving a summary of what was said in the day's speeches.
"The accounts offered by leaders of the most vulnerable nations, especially small island developing states, were particularly telling."
Ban sketched areas where there had been broad consensus but also acknowledged clear areas of contention.
These included whether there should be a long-term goal for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions.
European countries on Monday called for the world to set a target of halving emissions by 2050 compared with a 1990 benchmark and to peg global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) to limit damage to Earth's fragile climate system.
British Environment Minister Hilary Benn also called on the United States to end its opposition to making binding pledges on cutting its emissions.
These commitments, which only apply to industrialized countries that are Kyoto parties, were a key argument for President George W. Bush's decision to abandon the landmark UN treaty in 2001.
"All of us, including the largest economy in the world -- the United States -- (have to be) taking on binding reduction targets. It is inconceivable that dangerous climate change can be avoided without this happening," Benn told reporters.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said: "All the developed countries and the major emitting countries must commit to the objective of reducing emissions by at least 50 percent between now and 2050."
"Collective action is imperative. The fate of each is linked with that of all. Solidarity is imperative. The poor would be the first victims of our selfishness."
Bush paid no attention to journalists who called to him as he left from a dinner, hosted by Ban at UN headquarters, gathering heads of government and ministers from major countries in the climate talks.
"As a major economy and also a major greenhouse-gas emitter, the United States takes this challenge very seriously," said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in her speech, spelling out in particular US initiatives to promote cleaner technology.
Developing countries, meanwhile, said the onus was on rich ones to cut their emissions beyond 2012 and not look to poorer countries to sign up to binding pollution cuts, as this could prejudice their rise out of poverty.
Indian Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram pointed out that India's per-capita emission of carbon dioxide (CO2) "is among the lowest in the world -- it is approximately one tonne per annum, as against a world average of four tonnes per annum."
In what appeared to be a warning to the United States, Ban said "all other processes or initiatives (on climate change) should be compatible with the UNFCCC process and should feed into it, facilitating its successful conclusion."
The UNFCCC -- the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change -- is the parent treaty of the Kyoto Protocol.
The United States on Thursday hosts a two-day meeting of major carbon polluters, launching a 15-month process to define national goals and identify industrial sectors and promising technology that could be harnessed in the fight against climate change.
Defenders of the Kyoto Protocol suspect this initiative could be a US attempt to undermine the slower but inclusive UNFCCC process and promote a voluntary, less ambitious deal for emissions curbs among a smaller club.
A poll conducted for the BBC among 22,000 people in 21 countries, published Tuesday, found that nearly two-thirds of respondents agreed it was necessary to "take major steps starting very soon" to combat global warming.
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