United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon said he was optimistic and confident that the talks would conclude with a universal and ambitious agreement, as he urged countries to look beyond their national boundaries to secure a deal on climate change.
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The mission of world leaders, beyond handling economies and politics, is to help eradicate poverty, promote clean energy and help provide jobs, opportunities and hope for future generations.
The pledge may help unstick one of the main points of contention at the summit in Paris, where developing nations are pressing for more financial assistance to offset the impact of climate change, such as droughts, flooding and rising sea levels.
Since President Obama took office, the United States has reduced carbon emissions, tripled domestic wind energy production, and increased solar power twenty fold.
“The world has changed and Paris needs to reflect that change”, he said, noting that at the time of previous climate talks Korea had been receiving aid from the US, but it now provides aid to other countries as it has grown economically. The capital is capable of moving wheresignal of the marketplace will ask to go after Paris, he added.
The EU has been among the most outspoken advocates of binding targets. “We have every expectation of strong and robust finance continuing from the U.S. and others to developing countries”, said U.S. Climate Envoy Todd Stern at a press conference.
Ministers from around the world have begun high-level talks aimed at getting a new global climate deal, with the pressure on to reach an ambitious agreement.
PARIS Organizers of global climate talks in Paris sounded hopeful on Monday that they could reach a deal by the end of the week, even if there was little indication of how differences over funding in particular would be resolved. He pointed out major developing countries like India are insisting on their right to use fossil fuels to develop, like Western countries did during the Industrial Revolution.
Global carbon emissions from fossil-fuel burning have been growing at an annual rate of 2.4 percent over the past decade, contributing to steadily rising levels of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere.
“India is here to ensure that rich countries pay back their debt for overdraft that they have drawn on the carbon space”, said Prakash Javadekar, India’s environment minister. On Monday, Beijing issued its first ever red alert for smog, urging schools to close and invoking restrictions on factories and traffic. While that’s different from greenhouse gas emissions, much of the air pollution is blamed on coal-fired power plants and vehicle emissions which also are key sources of carbon emissions.
That contrasts with the USA position, which is for some parts to be legally binding, but not countries’ pledges to limit the greenhouse gas emissions.
The ratcheting up mechanism has gained favor among developed countries, but many in the developing world fear the review system will force them to make commitments they can not keep before assessing the effects of their first efforts at climate mitigation, according to John Coequyt, the Sierra Club’s director of federal and worldwide climate campaigns.
Tuvalu Prime Minister Enela warned that his island nation and others face potential extinction if temperatures continue to rise.
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Kyria Spooner, a 28-year-old software company trainer from Lincoln, said news of the attacks anxious her but she didn’t let that stand in the way of her plans to represent Nebraska in Paris. “As world leaders and business leaders alike have made crystal clear in Paris, we need action, and we need it now”.
