Mr Ban Ki-moon, the UN Secretary-General, has opened the High Level Segment of COP 16 with a call on governments to be flexible and negotiate in a spirit of compromise and common sense for the good of all peoples.
"Issues of climate change are not sprints, but a marathon and therefore it is important to keep taking determined steps forward. People around the world are watching. They need their governments to act in their best long-term interests," he said
Delivering a statement at the on-going 16th session of the Conference of the Parties and the sixth session of the Conference of the Parties
serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Cancun Mexico, he said, "We cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good,".
Mr Ban cautioned that the world was failing its last chance to control climate change and appealed to nations to ramp up slow but steady progress at talks in Mexico, adding that the world had a limited gateway to cut carbon emissions or risk irreversible damage to the planet according to studies by scientists.
"I'm deeply concerned that our efforts so far have been insufficient, that despite the evidence and many years of negotiation we are still not rising to the challenge. Business as usual cannot be tolerated. Cancun must represent a breakthrough.
"The world, particularly the poor and vulnerable, cannot afford the luxury of waiting for the perfect agreement. Every country can and must do more as the two-week talks entered the final four days", he said.
Ms Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change said the fate of low-lying islands
should be a "wake-up call".
She said a big difference remained between nations on issues such as cutting emissions, protection from climate impacts and inspections of others' emission curbs.
"It is unclear whether those issues can be resolved in the three days left. The political stakes are high because the effectiveness and
credibility of your inter-governmental, multilateral process are in danger," she said.
Ms Figueres said, "And the environmental stakes are high because we are quickly running out of time to safeguard our future.
"Tuvalu, The Maldives, Kiribati, Vanuatu are looking for ways of evacuating their entire populations because of salt water intrusion and
sea-level rise. Their fate is a wake-up call to all of us."
President Felipe Calderon of Mexico, said in his opening speech, "The work has been difficult, but I see the results of negotiations are encouraging although it is clear there are formidable challenges to overcome.
"What should prevail is goodwill, trust and understanding, and with that we will be able to offer the world an opportunity to open a new path when it comes to fighting climate change."
About a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty: The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever
temperature increases are inevitable.
More recently a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty namely the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful and legally binding measures.
The UNFCCC secretariat supported all institutions involved in the climate change process, particularly the COP, the subsidiary bodies and their Bureau.
This section contains numerous resources -- for beginners or experts such as introductory and in-depth publications, the official UNFCCC and
Kyoto Protocol texts and a search engine to the UNFCCC library.
From Albert Ansah, GNA Special Correspondent, Cancun, Mexico (Courtesy: British Council Ghana/Ministry of Environment Science and Technology/World Bank)