Earlier this year, the Obama Administration trumpeted the recently passed United Nations regular budget as a triumph of fiscal discipline. To some degree, it is justified in that claim. The initial appropriations for the 2012–2013 budget (at $5.15 billion) are $263 million lower than the final expenditures for the 2010–2011 budget, and nearly $44 million lower than the 2012–2013 budget originally proposed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. This is only the third time since 1960 that the initial U.N. regular budget appropriation was lower than the final appropriation for the previous …
As Middle Eastern and North African governments totter and fall, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has his sights set on the real crisis: getting Hollywood to produce more films on global warming. As reported in the Guardian: Ban has been on the phone to Gaddafi and other leaders in the Middle East from Hollywood, where he is trying to raise the profile of climate change and – who knows – maybe pitch a movie. You might think that Secretary-General Ban’s priorities are a bit backwards. Perhaps he could fit in …
At the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Summit in New York this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero both called for a global financial transaction tax to fund foreign aid projects to lift the world’s poor out of poverty. Sounding more like a populist politician than an international civil servant, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon chimed in supportively, warning developed countries not to “balance budgets on the backs of the poor.” Trouble is, there is little evidence that the vast sums of tax dollars …
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is never afraid to make headlines when it comes to his stance on climate change. In 2007 he likened the war on climate change to actual war saying, “”The majority of the United Nations work still focuses on preventing and ending conflict. But the danger posed by war to all of humanity and to our planet is at least matched by the climate crisis and global warming.” More recently, in defense of his position after Climategate, he emphasized, “Climate change is happening much, much faster …
Last week, after the Kremlin leaked news that Presidents Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev had reached agreement on a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon released a statement including: I hope that this new treaty can be ratified without delay so as to allow its expeditious implementation. Secretary-General Ki-moon’s offices at U.N. headquarters in New York do enjoy the protection of United States security, but perhaps the head of the UN should not be deciding when a treaty is ready to be ratified.
Likes sands in an hour glass, these are the [remaining] days of our lives…43. At least that’s all that’s left according to remarks of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. On August 11th of this year the Secretary-General told a gathering of the Global Environment Forum: “We must seal the deal in Copenhagen for the future of humanity. We have just four months. Four months to secure the future of our planet.” (emphasis added) The Secretary General then went on to say the deal that had to be sealed in Copenhagen “to …
Yesterday, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hosted a climate summit in New York designed to improve the chances that the December U.N. Copenhagen Climate Conference would produce a substantive treaty that would cap and cut carbon emissions. The Copenhagen agreement would replace the Kyoto Protocol that was rejected by the United States Senate 95 – 0. But as the Washington Post reports, even President Barack Obama’s star power failed to move nations towards meaningful carbon reductions: Initially, many climate activists had hoped this year would yield a pact in …
Yesterday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the United States a “deadbeat” donor to the world body. The White House called these words “unfortunate” and at least rightfully acknowledged the “the contribution that the American taxpayer makes.” However, these words are much more than “unfortunate.” Let’s start with our donor status. The United States puts up 22% of the operating budget of the United Nations. Compared to other well populated nations with large economies, this is an outstanding number. China barely tops 2%, Brazil is just over 1% and Russia and …
