It is a particular pleasure to have this opportunity to share some of my thoughts through the inaugural edition of this bulletin – which I hope will become a vibrant medium of communication and exchange in the period ahead – as we each do our part to keep the promise we made in Bali and to realize success in Poznań and then Copenhagen.

Our achievement in Bali came as the culmination of years of hard work by many who grapple with the multiple dimensions of the complex challenge of climate change on a daily basis: scientists, economists, politicians, policy makers, technological innovators, public servants and ordinary citizens around the world. To succeed in Copenhagen, we must bring our best to the table in service of a higher purpose. Time is short and the stakes extremely high.

I commend the Parties to the Convention for starting work in earnest during the Bangkok Climate Change Talks and for the progress they made in Bonn. And I wish them all success at future sessions in Accra and beyond.

I have made it a personal priority to ensure that the United Nations plays its full role in this process, not only because climate change is just the kind of global challenge that the UN is best suited to address but also because of the clear moral imperative for bold, decisive and urgent action. We have a duty to the vulnerable who contribute least to the problem but experience its impacts most severely, and we have a responsibility to succeeding generations. We also have an historical obligation to successfully transition to a low-carbon global economy. In the last century, we rose to the occasion to welcome the Industrial Revolution, the technology revolution, and the era of globalization. In this century, responding to the climate change challenge demands that we harness that same resolve.

The United Nations system is taking action to support the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) on the journey through Poznań to Copenhagen. In this effort, we are guided by the Parties' wishes, as expressed in the existing agreements under the Convention and its Kyoto Protocol, and in the Bali Action Plan.