UN chief presses Harper on climate change

By Deborah Gyapong

Canadian Catholic News

OTTAWA (CCN) — In his first visit to Ottawa as the United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon called the plight of the world’s poor a “global development emergency.”
He said the invisible crisis “risks even greater catastrophe than climate change — and that is every bit the security threat as nuclear weapons.”

He stressed the need to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) despite the current global economic crisis that has “made that job harder but also more urgent.”

“The upcoming summits here in Canada must provide a new resolve to meet global commitments to the poor of the world,” he said in a speech to the United Nations’ Association of Canada May 12.

The secretary general also urged Canada to comply with Kyoto Protocol targets, noting that climate change and poverty are interrelated. “I urge Canada to comply with the targets set out by the Kyoto Protocol. You can strengthen your mitigation targets for the future,” he said.

After meeting later in the day with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other government officials, Ban gave a short statement to journalists.

“The upcoming G8 and G20 summit meetings here in Canada provide an opportunity to deliver for the world’s poor and most vulnerable people,” he said in the foyer of the House of Commons.

But some journalists wanted to change the channel to the abortion debate. Of the four questions Ban took, two concerned whether Canada should include the funding of abortion when it leads the G8 maternal and child health initiative.

Ban avoided the controversy by noting that Canada and other countries had signed on to a 1994 agreement on population and development that promoted reproductive health. He said there was a common understanding that “abortion should not be promoted” as a form of family planning.

He noted that the United Nations did not take a position on abortion per se, as decisions to its legality were left to member countries. “Where abortion is legal, it should be safe,” he said.

Asked if Canada’s refusal to fund abortion would complicate the maternal and child health initiative, Ban said he wished to avoid that issue and focus on the “broader picture.”

“It is just unacceptable, it is an injustice, that a woman dies every minute because of a complication of pregnancy or childbirth,” Ban said. “Now this is preventable.”

A Harper spokesperson reported the abortion issue never came up in Ban’s 45-minute meeting with the prime minister.

But Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff, who has insisted Canada fund abortions, told the Toronto Star: “He made it pretty clear to me that if we’re going to maintain those Millennium Development Goals, we have to offer the full range of reproductive health services for women.”