Senior US officials said Washington was cautiously optimistic the talks, scheduled to end on Friday, would unlock an ambitious deal to lower carbon emissions and combat the impact of global warming.
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“The clock is ticking towards climate catastrophe”, Ban told representatives from nearly 200 countries at the ongoing United Nations climate change conference in the French capital, Paris, on Monday.
But the divisions were once again laid bare in the statements of foreign and environment ministers who joined the talks outside Paris after lower-level negotiators had delivered a draft agreement over the weekend with crunch issues left unresolved.
City leaders rarely need to be convinced of the benefits of climate-related actions, and in Paris, they committed to doing more. People around the world are expecting that world leaders will do something more than just “half-measures” to tackle climate change, he added.
Taking effect from 2020, the Paris accord would seek to limit emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases, driven especially by coal, oil and gas – the backbone of the world’s energy supply today. “In times of crisis, it is not always easy to say that we will put money into retrofitting and developing renewable energy”, said Deputy Paris Mayor Celia Blauel, who was also at the launch of the five-year vision.
“We can not accept that because to accept that is to destroy our societies”, he said to applause.
The EU spokeswoman Carole Dieschebourg said ministers were “open” to a 1.5C target.
As European Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete said, this coming week will be “the week of compromise”. Many U.S. Republicans question whether climate change is happening and oppose emissions limits out of concern that it would hurt U.S. industry and jobs.
However, Lykketoft cautioned that a robust universal climate agreement in Paris is an essential foundation for the world to avoid crossing the threshold of a maximum two degrees Celsius global average temperature rise.
More than 180 countries have already presented national pledges for reining in carbon emissions after 2020, when the Paris deal would take effect. It assumed that rich countries have polluted for longer, and bear a bigger responsibility for addressing the resulting problem – a distinction developing nations wish to retain.
India and other major developing countries insist on their right to use some fossil fuels to advance their economies and argue the developed countries are historically responsible for raising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Meanwhile, in China, Beijing issued its first ever red alert for smog, urging schools to close and invoking restrictions on factories and traffic.
The 195-nation UN talks have been billed as the last chance to avert the worst consequences of global warming: deadly drought, floods and storms, and rising seas that will engulf islands and densely-populated coastlines. But scientific analyses show that won’t be enough to meet the worldwide goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F), compared to pre-industrial times. But they would agree to such a provision only if it was a voluntary requirement and if developed countries explicitly pledge to raise at least US$ 100 billion every year after 2020 as promised. The draft, however, sets 2024 as the earliest date of such a reappraisal. “In Bali, when the USA needed to do revising, they needed to call back to Washington D.C.”, said John Coequyt, the Sierra Club’s director of federal and worldwide climate campaign, referring to a 2007 climate conference. “If we save Tuvalu we save the world”, Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sosene Sopoaga told the conference.
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“‘What did you do?’ The same question will be asked of you. We need to see something to address permanent losses”, said a spokesman for the G77 and China group of 132 countries.
