United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged all countries to join forces with the private sector, civic groups and individuals around the world to take action this year to sustain the unprecedented momentum to fight global warming.

At the start of a two-day UN General Assembly debate to generate support for a new treaty by 2009 to fight global warming, the Secretary-General said:

2008 is a time we must take concerted action. As a result of the remarkable efforts of last year, the international community is armed with a powerful combination of authoritative and compelling science, a far-reaching and rising tide of public concern, and powerful declarations of political will voiced at the Bali Climate Change Conference.

General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim invited UN member states, government officials as well as business and civic leaders to the United Nations to follow up on December's Bali international climate conference.

Kerim said that combating climate change will only be possible through partnerships and cooperation.

We have asked people here to participate in order to discuss private-public partnership. The climate change issue is such a global issue… We need partnerships... with the business sector, with the cities, with the NGOs, with the media. This is why we convened this gathering.

Delegates from nearly 190 nations agreed there to adopt a blueprint to control global warming gases before the end of next year.

Michael Bloomberg, New York's climate-activist mayor who attended the Bali conference, said in his keynote address to the UN meeting that the United States should shoulder due responsibility in curbing the global warming.

I believe the United States should enact a tax on carbon emissions. Now, others advocate a 'cap and trade' system, an approach that I believe would be less direct and therefore less successful. But either alternative would be superior to our current inadequate status quo. … and I believe the American people are prepared to accept our responsibility to lead by example.

The two-day debate follows a recent report by the secretary-general which said global warming could cost the world up to 20 trillion US Dollars over two decades for cleaner energy sources.