{"id":12469,"date":"2015-11-30T15:49:13","date_gmt":"2015-11-30T15:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=12469"},"modified":"2018-04-22T12:03:02","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T16:03:02","slug":"at-cop21-opening-ban-tells-world-leaders-political-moment-like-this-may-not-come-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2015\/11\/at-cop21-opening-ban-tells-world-leaders-political-moment-like-this-may-not-come-again\/","title":{"rendered":"At COP21 opening, Ban tells world leaders ‘political moment like this may not come again’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Speaking at the opening of the United Nations climate change conference (COP21<\/a>) which seeks to reach a new universal agreement to protect people and planet, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General<\/a> Ban Ki-moon said a political moment like this may not come again.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are here today to write the script for a new future,\u201d Mr. Ban told<\/a> around 150 world leaders attending the kick-off of the much-anticipated conference in Paris, France.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never faced such a test,\u201d he continued. \u201cBut neither have we encountered such great opportunity. You have the power to secure the well-being of this and succeeding generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Opening the floor alongside the President of France, Fran\u00e7ois Hollande, the French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius, and the Executive Secretary of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Framework Convention on Climate Change (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵFCCC<\/a>), Christiana Figueres, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ chief recalled that last September, an \u201cinspiring\u201d new sustainable development agenda<\/a> with ambitious goals was endorsed by all Heads of State and Government.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou showed your commitment to act for the common good,\u201d he underlined. \u201cIt is now time to do so again. I urge you to instruct your negotiators to choose the path of compromise and consensus. Bold climate action is in the national interest of every single country represented at this conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Insisting that Paris must mark a turning point, Mr. Ban stated that the world needs to know that it is headed to a low-emissions, climate-resilient future, and that \u201cthere is no going back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahead of COP21, countries submitted voluntary climate action plans to Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵFCCC, the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ entity organizing the conference. These are formally called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions<\/a>, or INDCs, and will form the basis of the agreement expected to be reached in two weeks.<\/p>\n

The Secretary-General announced today that more than 180 countries have now submitted their national climate plans which cover close to 100 per cent of global emissions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a good start,\u201d he said. \u201cBut we need to go much farther and much faster if we are to limit global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to experts, even a 2-degree rise will have serious consequences for food and water security, economic stability and international peace, which is why a universal, meaningful agreement in Paris is crucial, Mr. Ban told the leaders.<\/p>\n

Turning to success criteria at COP21, Mr. Ban said the agreement must be durable, dynamic, embody solidarity with the poor and most vulnerable, and finally, the agreement must be credible.<\/p>\n

\u201cDeveloped countries must keep their pledge to mobilize $100 billion dollars a year by 2020,\u201d he added. \u201cA new agreement must also include a single transparent framework for measuring, monitoring and reporting progress. And countries with low capacity should receive flexibility and support so they can meet the requirements of this new system.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaking at the opening of the United Nations climate change conference (COP21) which seeks to reach a new universal agreement to protect people and planet, Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said a political moment like this may not come again.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":230,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[20,4],"tags":[472,3632,144,1132,5033],"class_list":["post-12469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-climate-change","category-news","tag-ban-ki-moon","tag-climate-action","tag-climate-change","tag-cop21","tag-paris-climate-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/230"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12469\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}