UN climate summit to rally global action
Some 125 world leaders are expected to commit to action on climate change at a UN summit tomorrow called to inject momentum in struggling efforts to tackle global warming.
The gathering will be the largest ever of governments and heads of states on climate change and the first of its kind since the Copenhagen summit collapsed in disarray in 2009.
US President Barack Obama is to outline his vision for limiting global warming, but key polluters China and India are sending lower-level representatives in a move seen as reducing the summit's authority.
"Action on climate change is urgent. The more we delay, the more we will pay in lives and in money," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said this week.
Ban called the summit to set the stage for a breakthrough at the crucial Paris conference in December next year that is intended to yield a new deal on cutting greenhouse gas emissions after 2020.
While the summit is separate from the negotiations to be held under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Ban has urged leaders to come forward with offers and voice their commitment for a deal.
Diplomats point to the failure of the Copenhagen conference as a cautionary tale, underscoring the need to enlist political leaders now if the talks stand of chance of coming together in Paris in December 2015.
About 100,000 demonstrators including Hollywood celebrity Leonardo DiCaprio and climate-change crusader Al Gore today are to take part in a "People's Climate March" in New York to demand action from world leaders. Billed as the largest climate change protest in history, the march will highlight the role of civil society in the push for climate change.
The United Nations is seeking to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, but scientists say current emission trends could hike temperatures to more than twice that level by century's end.
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