Obama calls on world leaders to reach climate deal
President Obama urged his fellow world leaders Monday to reach a landmark deal to curb global warming before it dooms the planet.
“I come here personally as the leader of the world’s biggest economy and second-biggest emitter to say that America not only acknowledges its role in climate change but embraces doing something about it,” Obama said.
Speaking at the opening session of a United Nations conference attended by 196 nations, he said the old arguments for inaction on climate change had been broken.
“One of the enemies we will be fighting at this conference is cynicism. The notion we can’t do anything about climate change,” Obama said.
He said the next few weeks could mark a turning point in efforts to limit global temperature rises, and “climate change could define the contours of this century more than any other (problem).”
The conference, which is scheduled to conclude Dec. 11, aims to reach an accord for reducing man-made greenhouse gases that cause global warming.
Amid extraordinarily tight security, 151 world leaders converged on the exhibition halls at Le Bourget Airport just outside the French capital.
Paris remains on edge since
the coordinated terrorist attacks by Islamic State militants Nov. 13 in Paris that killed 130 people.
Opening the event Monday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said negotiators had only days to finalize an agreement. He said that when the conference ends, he wants to be able to say “our mission is accomplished.”
U.N. climate chief Christina Figueres said in her opening remarks, “Never before has a responsibility so great been in the hands of so few.”
In his speech, Obama said he saw the effects of climate change firsthand in Alaska, “where the sea is already swallowing villages and eroding shorelines” and “where glaciers are melting at a pace unprecedented in modern times.”
He called his summer trip to Alaska a “preview of one possible future.”
The president said, “We know the truth, that many nations have contributed little to climate change but will be the first to feel its most destructive effects. For some island nations, climate change is a threat to their very existence.”
Obama praised Paris for carrying on with the summit despite the attacks and said there was no greater rejection to those who wanted “to tear down the world.”
He held bilateral talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Obama emphasized the importance of Chinese-U.S. efforts to fight climate change. Those countries are the two biggest greenhouse gas producers.
On the sidelines of the event, Obama met with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Obama expressed his regret over a Russian fighter jet that was shot down by Turkey, a NATO member, that led to the deaths of two Russian military personnel.