UN Chief Issues Urgent Plea for Warming Battle Plan

Citing a "desperate urgency," United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called upon environmental ministers from over 120 nations to forge a new battle plan against climate change by 2009. The new treaty would attempt to improve on the Kyoto Protocol by including every country, and serve as a "roadmap to a more secure climate future," said Ban, who called such action the "moral challenge of our generation."

Some of the specifics of Ban's speech at the UN environmental talks in Bali—especially an indication that greenhouse gases will likely need to be cut to 25-40% below 1990 levels—ruffled feathers. "We don't want to be pre-determining what will come out of this process," said a US delegate. Japan, Canada, and Australia seem to agree that it's too early to be talking numbers. (More global warming stories.)