While Ahmadinejad spoke at Columbia, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon kicked off a special session on climate change at the United Nations. Ban Ki-moon said governments must take “unprecedented action” to reverse the trend of global warming.

Ban Ki-moon: “We hold the future in our hands. Together, we must ensure that our grandchildren will not have to ask why we have failed to do the right things and left to them to suffer the consequences. So let us send a clear and collective signal to people everywhere. Today, let the world know that you are ready to shoulder this responsibility and that you will address this challenge head-on.”

Over 80 heads of state attended Monday’s meeting, but President Bush chose not to attend. Bush, who opposes international treaties to address global warming, has organized a competing climate change forum later this week in Washington. Ban Ki-moon criticized the U.S. effort. He said, “The U.N. climate process is the appropriate forum for negotiating global action.” Yvo de Boer, a top U.N. climate change official, said the Bush administration needs to be part of the global discussion.

Yvo de Boer: “The United States is still the largest emitter worldwide of greenhouse gases. And for that reason and for a number of others, the participation of the U.S. is essential. At the same time, emissions in large developing countries, like China, India, Brazil, South Africa, are growing very fast, and to develop a future regime that doesn’t also engage them in terms of limiting emissions of greenhouse gases would be pretty much meaningless.”

Yvo de Boer stressed the urgency of reaching an agreement on a plan of action that would replace the Kyoto Protocol.

John Coequyt of Greenpeace: “Well, what’s on the table right now and what really needs to happen is we need to have a negotiating mandate, a very clear binding mandate come out of discussions in Indonesia. And from that, we need to see much larger greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the developed world. We need to see expanded participation from the developing world. And we need to see sort of a global agreement that in the long run we’re going to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half, in order to solve this problem.”