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Published on September 26, 2007

Addressing the plenary session of the UN's high level summit on climate change, Surayud said everybody had been struggling with turbulent weather patterns and increasingly severe natural disasters.

The calamities caused by weather in various parts of the world were signs of climate change. "We ignore them at our peril," he said.

Surayud was among 80 leaders who joined 150 representatives of member states to discuss the issue. Environ-mental champion former US vice president Al Gore plus Californian governor Arnold Schwarzenegger were also at the meeting. Gore said time was running out to tackle the crisis. Schwarzenegger said: "What we need is action, action, action".

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told world leaders that global talks needed a breakthrough to sharply reduce emissions of global-warming gases.

Surayud told the UN meeting his government followed His Majesty the King's sufficiency economy philosophy and New Theory in agriculture to encourage farmers to engage in mixed cropping, rather than a single cash crop.

To respond to international concerns over climate change, Thailand had launched the National Strategic Plan on climate change covering all aspects such as mitigation of greenhouse gases, he said.

As a major rice producer, Thailand called on other rice-growing nations and international institutes to focus on research and development for methane capture technology.

The critical issue at the climate change discussion was the different approaches of countries in cutting greenhouse gases. Ban wanted to use the political momentum of the summit to kick-start talks in December in Bali to cut carbon dioxide and other gases blamed for global warming.

Supalak G Khundee

The Nation

New York