New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called climate change the defining issue of this era and charged industrialized countries with leading the effort combat it, at the opening of a one-day conference at the United Nations Monday. "I am convinced that climate change, and what we do about it, will define us, our era, and ultimately the global legacy we leave for future generations," Ban told the UN General Assembly in New York.
Ban insisted that tackling global warming was affordable and that the technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions - the chief cause - already exists.
"We know enough to act," Ban said. "What we do not have is time."
More than 80 world leaders are among some 150 speakers expected to address the conference, which takes place one day before the leaders' annual round of speeches before the General Assembly.
The conference is designed to build political momentum ahead of a critical meeting in Bali, Indonesia, in December, where negotiators will begin talks to replace the Kyoto Protocol - a treaty setting targets for reducing carbon emissions on industrial nations - before its expiration in 2012.
"Our goal must be nothing short of a real breakthrough in Bali," said Ban, adding his "dismay" at the slow pace of talks until now.
Three UN-backed reports earlier this year by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, compiled by hundreds of scientists around the world, said global warming was "unequivocal" and the result of human actions.
The IPCC reports also warned that global warming was already affecting parts of the world, yet the "terrible irony" is that it is hitting developing nations hardest, though they did not cause the problem, Ban said.
Ban urged countries to be "creative" in finding ways to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
