UN chief prods Senate to tackle climate change

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon (C) makes brief remarks after meeting with Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-MA) and committee ranking member Sen. Richard Lugar (R-IN) at the U.S. Capitol November 10, 2009 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is pressing the Senate to take action on climate change, but key senators are making it clear that is unlikely to happen this year.

The U.N. chief met with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the status of negotiations on a new international pact to slow global warming before 192 nations meet in Copenhagen next month.

Ban told the senators it was critical for the U.S. to take the lead, but he also said he understood that the Senate may not take concrete action before the talks.

Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry said that he hoped to have an outline by the meeting of where the Senate was headed on curbing gases blamed for global warming.

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