24 June, 1997.

President Razali,
Secretary General Annan,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Greenpeace appreciates the opportunity and honour to address you, the world's sovereign governments, on behalf of millions of people world-wide. We acknowledge the compliment to us, and the many other NGOs which have drawn attention to the problems facing our planet, and the solutions to them.

But it is with some sadness that I stand before you.

My presence here is a testament to the fact that despite the alarm which has been raised, you have failed as yet to act. You have given in to commercial interests; you have put national interests above the welfare of future generations.

UNEP's "Global Environmental Outlook" clearly states that "[the] use of renewable resources - land, forest, fresh water, coastal areas, fisheries and urban air -- is beyond their natural regeneration capacity and therefore is unsustainable."

"Business as usual" is no longer an option. Whatever the promises you made at Rio, the condition of the world has worsened, in many cases at a faster rate than five years ago.

Glaciers are melting; forests are retreating; we are changing the seasons, we are running out of fish in the sea, we are poisoning our children with persistent organic pollutants and are accumulating nuclear waste. And as carbon emissions increase, we find ourselves running out of sky.

The vast majority of nations have commited in the1992 Climate Convention to "prevent dangerous interference" with the climate system.

Yet outside this building there is another reality. Carbon dioxide emissions have increased to unprecedented levels. Sea levels will rise so much that entire nations represented in this room may vanish. The frequency of extreme weather events such as storms, which cause billions of dollars of damage, have increased.

Industrialised countries must commit to cut their carbon dioxide emissions by one-fifth, on 1990 levels, by 2005. Unless these countries, like the US, which consumes twice as much energy per capita as the rest of the industrialised world, take the first bold steps, they will have failed to provide real leadership.

The fate of this planet will be determined by the bravery or cowardice of your response to the challenge of global climate change at the conference in Kyoto.

We call upon all governments to agree that this meeting marks the beginning of the phase-out of fossil fuels, and their replacement by renewable energy.

More than three-quarters of the known reserves of oil, coal and gas must remain in the ground if we are to avoid catastrophic climatic disruption. Why, then, do the governments of Britain, the US and others who have called at this session for reduction of CO2 emissions continue to subsidise, or permit, the search for new oil in pristine areas such as the Atlantic and Alaska?

Clean, renewable energy exists in abundance. Nuclear power is not an alternative.

Mr. President, the United Nations created a magnificent treaty in Rio, the Convention on Biological Diversity. But the host of plants and animals that depend on forests cannot live in a treaty, however many annexes it may acquire.

And as we sit here today, clearcut logging is underway in the last great stands of Northern rainforests on the Pacific Coast of Canada and the USA. Yet how can we ask Brazil to stop the illegal logging and clearing in Amazonia when two of the world's wealthiest nations, Canada and the US, are, as I speak, logging their last remaining rainforests into extinction?

If you are serious about protecting species, you must halt all destruction of remaining old growth and primary rainforests, wherever they are found. Every species we lose, we lose forever.

Mr. President, the abolition of slavery, decolonisation, and the adoption of the International Declaration of Human Rights were defining points in human history -- moments in which people and then nations took deliberate steps toward true humanity. Today we are at such a threshold again.

Progress in protecting our environment will take more money. But money is not enough. Industrialised countries cannot simply wash their hands of responsibility by making investments in the developing world. Nor can the developing world use the global environmental crisis solely as leverage for obtaining finance. The world deserves effective programmes and binding commitments. But countries like Germany - which subsidise fossil fuel industries with billions of dollars while at the same time propose a new environmental bureaucracy - lack credibility, when real leadership by industrialised countries is needed.

Mr. President, there are numerous other important issues, but time does not allow me to address them. I would, however, urge government delegations to seriously consider NGO documents, in particular: "NGO Recommendations for Actions and Commitments at Earth Summit II," which addresses 40 to50 important sectoral and cross-cutting issues.

It has become fashionable to say that governments can do very little, and that all power now lies with unaccountable multinational companies and institutions in a newly globalised market. But let that not disguise the power and accountability which you, together, hold to impose environmental and social limits, controls and standards.

Distinguished delegates, the measure of success or failure in your efforts to save the world will not be words.

The sole measure of your success will be the actions your words become.