25 July 2009, Xi'an, China

National and local governments must work more closely together in tackling climate change if the world is going to mount an effective response to the problem, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said during his official visit to China.

Mr. Ban toured the city of Xi'an, renowned for its 2,000-year-old terracotta warriors, and saw first-hand the efforts of local authorities to protect the environment and maintain cultural heritage while transforming the city into a more modern urban area that can handle its growing population. He also met with the Governor of Shaan'Xi province and visited a solar energy research centre and a sewage treatment site.

In his meetings Mr. Ban praised local authorities for their efforts and urged national and local governments worldwide to better integrate their approaches to climate change to ensure they are more effective. He stated that

"National governments can have their national policies, but after all it is provincial governments who have to implement these policies and even from this kind of bottom-up support, policies will be much more effective than top-down policies".

According to Mr. Ban, top-down policies by the central government and bottom-up policies by the local governments need to be united, so that the world can successfully address climate change and sustainable economic development.

On his second day of his visit to China, the UN Secretary-General continued to spotlight green issues, reiterating the importance of Chinese leadership for the global climate change talks being held in Copenhagen, Denmark, December 2009. Those talks – the 15^th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the UNFCCC – will hopefully result in a strong and comprehensive, post-2012 global climate agreement (as the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol will end in 2012).

To read more, please visit the official UN News Centre.