(LEAD) Lee calls for contributions from all nations in fighting climate change

(ATTN: UPDATES with additional remarks, details in paras 9-11, minor changes)
By Byun Duk-kun
NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged world
leaders Tuesday to do as much as they can to help fight climate change, calling
for efforts by every country including those that may not be historically
responsible for global warming.

Attending the U.N. summit on climate change, Lee reaffirmed that South Korea will
announce a greenhouse gas reduction target within this year, becoming the first
developing country to do so voluntarily, his presidential office Cheong Wa Dae
said.
Lee specifically proposed setting up a "registry" in which other countries would
do the same.
"President Lee especially stressed the post-2012 U.N. convention on climate
change must be based on a system where developing countries, too, recognize and
encourage efforts to cut global greenhouse gas emissions," it said.
Under the existing U.N. convention, only industrialized countries, categorized as
annex-1 economies, are required to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to
targets set below their 1990 levels. Voluntary goal-setting by South Korea,
although not a annex-1 country, is aimed at pressuring others to follow,
President Lee said.
In an interview Monday with the New York Times, the transcript of which was
partially released by Cheong Wa Dae, the president emphasized such a role by
South Korea.
"South Korea hopes to play the role of a mediator that can lead other emerging
economies through action," Cheong Wa Dae's release quoted the president as
saying.
"The international community must work together, and this means cooperation
between the advanced and emerging and new economies," Lee said.
At the climate summit, the South Korean president proposed the United Nations
create a "registry for nationally appropriate mitigation actions," under which
each developing country will set their voluntary targets for emission cuts.
"This is a significant proposal aimed at resolving the standoff between advanced
and emerging economies," a South Korean official accompanying the president told
reporters, referring to the prolonged debate over whether newly emerging
economies, too, must share the cost of fighting global warming when their
historical responsibility is far less than that of rich nations.
The proposal came in one of eight roundtable sessions Lee and Australian Prime
Minister Kevin Rudd co-chaired, the official said.
Tuesday's summit precedes a U.N.-hosted conference in December in Copenhagen that
is hoped to produce an agreement replacing the existing climate convention that
expires in 2012.
In a recorded speech posted on the U.N. Web site, the South Korean president
urged all countries to do what they can, saying even the smallest effort counts.
"As an Asian axiom says; 'ten spoonfuls of rice add up to a full bowl.'
Collaboration is always crucial and even the smallest contribution should count,"
Lee said.
"What really matters is not the size of the spoon, but the willingness to pitch
in," he added.
Lee will attend the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, at which he is expected
to again address climate change and other global issues such as North Korea's
nuclear development in a keynote speech.
He is set to depart Thursday for Pittsburgh where he will attend the G-20
economic summit.
bdk@yna.co.kr
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