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UN chief warns about 'climate catastrophe'

Tuesday, 08 December 2015 9:39 AM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 08 December 2015 9:39 AM ]

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon delivers a speech during a conference on the sidelines of the World Climate Change Conference on December 7, 2015 in Paris, France. (©AFP)

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned that “climate catastrophe” awaits the world if the countries attending the climate change talks in Paris, France fail to reach a binding deal on ways to reduce global warming.

“The clock is ticking towards climate catastrophe,” Ban told representatives from almost 200 countries at the ongoing UN climate change conference in the French capital, Paris, on Monday.

The UN chief further called on the participants to help “translate this historic call for action into a durable, dynamic, credible and fair climate agreement,” adding, “Paris must put the world on track for long-term peace, stability and prosperity.”

Leaders of 150 nations, along with 40,000 delegates from 195 countries, are attending the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP21, to try to tackle climate change on a global political level between November 30 and December 11, 2015.

The participants are working to achieve a legally-binding and universal agreement on reductions in greenhouse gas emissions meant to hold global average temperatures short of a 2-degree Celsius increase over pre-industrial global temperatures.

Senior world leaders pose for a photo at the World Climate Change Conference 2015 (COP21), on November 30, 2015 at Le Bourget, on the outskirts of the French capital, Paris. (©AFP)

Ban further urged five-year government reviews of each country's commitment to the below-2-degrees goal before it takes effect in 2020, while underscoring that the low-emissions transformation in the global economy is “inevitable, beneficial and already under way.”

On Saturday, delegates from the 196 participant countries managed to meet a deadline and agreed to accept one of two draft texts designed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are changing the world climate.

The document lays out a range of options for officials on what the long-term goal of the deal should be, as well as the scale and methods of raising climate finance for poorer nations.

The main differences still lingering at the conference is the question of how commitment to promises made to cut carbon in this agreement will be reviewed. Some of the poorer countries involved in the conference warned the talks would fail if the rich tried to limit their right to grow to protect the climate.

There are also finance concerns among the parties to the talks. While some richer countries want to expand the base of donors to help the poorer countries cope with climate change and ease their transition to low-carbon electricity, others believe it is not fair.

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