B4

Vanessa Gera
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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POZNAN, Poland - The first solar-powered car to travel around the world has ended its journey at the UN climate talks in Poland.

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AP

Yvo de Boer, executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, greets journalists as he arrives in a solar taxi to the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan, Poland, last week. The solar vehicle, built by Louis Palmer from Switzerland with the help of Swiss scientists and driven by Palmer, has travelled around the world setting a world record of 52,000 km, or 32,300 miles, through 38 countries using only solar energy.

It arrived in Poznan, Poland, with the message that clean technologies are available now to stop global warming.

Hauling a trailer of solar cells and carrying chief UN climate official Yvo de Boer, it glided up to a building where delegates from some 190 countries are working toward a new treaty to control climate change.

The small two-seater runs noiselessly and can travel close to 90-kilometres-an-hour.

It covers close to 300-kilometres on a fully charged battery.

The car's appearance at the conference marked the end of a 52,000-kilometre journey through 38 countries that began 17 months ago in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Louis Palmer, the 36-year-old Swiss schoolteacher and adventurer who piloted the vehicle, says it is the first time in history that a solar-powered car has travelled all the way around the world "without using a single drop of petrol."

"These new technologies are ready," he said. "It's ecological, it's economical, it is absolutely reliable. We can stop global warning."

Palmer said he lost only two days to breakdowns during the journey.

"This car runs like a Swiss clock," he said.

He calls his vehicle, which was developed by scientists at Swiss universities, a "solar taxi" because he has given rides to about 1,000 people - officials and regular folk alike - to convince them of the technology's viability.

Passengers have included New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.

Delegates in Poznan are seeking an ambitious new climate treaty that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

The goal is for the new treaty to be finalized at the next UN climate meeting in December 2009 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

"Here at the conference, we are talking about reducing emissions by 10 or 20 per cent," Palmer said. "I want to show that we can reduce emissions by 100 per cent - and that's what we need for the future."