COP21: Paris conference could be climate turning point, says Obama

from BBC




US President Barack Obama has said the UN climate conference in Paris could be a "turning point" in global efforts to limit future temperature rises.

Negotiators from 195 countries will try to reach a deal within two weeks aimed at reducing global carbon emissions and limiting global warming to 2C (3.6F).

Leaders from 147 nations have been addressing the meeting, known as COP21.

President Obama urged negotiators to deliver a meaningful deal, because the "next generation is watching".

He told delegates: "Climate change could define the contours of this century more than any other (challenge).


"I came here personally to say the United States not only recognises the problem but is committed to do something about it."


He added that recent years had shown that the global economy had grown while emissions had remained flat, breaking the old arguments for inaction "that economic growth and environmental protection were in conflict".

Russian President Vladimir Putin also addressed the conference.

During negotiations for the preceding Kyoto Protocol, Russia was the last industrialised nation to ratify the global agreement, allowing the landmark deal to come into force in 2001.

Echoing President Obama, Mr Putin said: "We have demonstrated we can ensure economic development and take care of our environment at the same time."

In a diplomatic play on semantics, probably to highlight the differing points of view between industrialised and emerging economies, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the conference he did not see the Paris talks as a turning point nor a "finish line, but a new starting point".

He said that climate change went beyond national borders and that it was "a shared mission for all mankind", before reiterating China's pledge to start cutting its emissions from a peak in 2030.


British Prime Minister David Cameron used his address to consider how future generations would respond to the idea that it was "too difficult" for this generation of politicians to reach an agreement in 2015.

"Our grandchildren would ask why it was so difficult," he said, before listing how progress had been made in delivering climate policy, such as financing, carbon budgets and technological research and development.

"Instead of making excuses to our children and grandchildren, we should be taking action," Mr Cameron stated.

Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga made a stark observation in his passionate address: "If we save Tuvalu, we will surely save the world."

"Like other nations in the Pacific, our survival depends on the decisions we take here in Paris," he said, reflecting the concerns of many Small Island States (SISs) around the globe.

"We stand on a cliff edge. Either we stand united and agree to combat climate change, or we all stumble and fall."


Much of the discussion in Paris is expected to centre on an agreement to limit global warming to 2C (3.6F).

However, assessments of the more than 180 national climate action plans submitted by countries to the summit suggest that if they are implemented, the world will see a rise of nearer to 3C.

Christiana Figueres, the head of the UN's climate change negotiations, told delegates that never before had a responsibility so great been in the hands of so few.

"The world is looking to you," she said. "The world is counting on you."

The talks are taking place amid tight security, two weeks after attacks in Paris claimed by the so-called Islamic State (IS) group.

World leaders are attending the start of the two-week meeting to give impetus to the talks, after the high-profile failure of the Copenhagen summit in 2009.