Climate change threatens peace and prosperity, says UN secretary general

Summit seeks joint engagement by countries, civil society and private sector

Reminding all nations of their joint responsibility in arresting the effects of climate change, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon stressed the importance of a low carbon climate for a resilient future. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the climate summit in New York on Wednesday (GMT), he reiterated that “our response will define our future.”

“No one is immune to climate change,” he said as he referred to his first-hand experience of its devastating effects, when Hurricane Sandy hit New York, flooding even the United Nations.

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Who said what and pledged how much

Francois Hollande, president, France: “Our commitment is to be clear, we need to do everything we can, so that we can curb and contain the increase in temperature below 2°C… We need to define a development model for the next 30 years to enable access to goods for the people of the world and at the same time conserve the planet…Each one of us must bear in mind the failure of Copenhagen, today we have an obligation to succeed.”

France pledged US $1 billion USD for the Green Climate Fund. (France, however, has a history of mixing its grants with loans).

Barack Obama, US president: "We recognize our role in creating this problem and our responsibility to solve it… We are the first generation to feel impacts of climate change and the last generation that can do anything about it."

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