AOSIS, which was meeting separately here, has dubbed itself the 'moral voice' of the Copenhagen negotiations while the European Union prides itself on taking the lead, with member states agreeing to make 20 percent cuts in CO2 emissions by 2020 from 1990 levels.New York (AFP) Sept 21, 2009 – As world leaders gather for key climate talks here, small island nations Monday warned they were running out of time with rising seas threatening to wipe them off the map.

Spread across the Earth’s oceans, the planet’s tiniest members grouped together in the Alliance of Small Islands States (AOSIS) are hoping to make their voices heard 100 days before UN-hosted climate talks in Copenhagen. UN chief Ban Ki-moon and former British prime minister Tony Blair also urged governments around the world to publicly commit themselves to tackling global warming as they opened New York Climate Week. “We need a commitment for a fair deal in Copenhagen,” Ban said. Climate negotiators have spent the last two years working toward a make-or-break summit in Copenhagen this December, expected to ink new targets for global emissions beyond 2012, when the Kyoto Protocol expires. “The will is actually there. The question is, can we find the way to match the will,” added Blair at the ceremony held in the New York library. “It is about getting a global agreement. To pass to the future generations a world that hopefully is better than the one we have today, but at least is not worse.” …

Islands warn of extinction at UN climate week