Your Direct Guidance Essential for Removing Roadblocks to Universal Agreement on Climate Change, Secretary-General Tells Leaders at Paris Summit

Following are UN Secretary General’s remarks as prepared for delivery at the twenty-first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) Leaders’ Summit lunch, in Paris today:

I would like to express my sincere thanks to President [François] Hollande for convening this leaders’ summit and for hosting COP21 under very challenging circumstances.

We have heard many speeches today, so I will keep my remarks brief.  Excellencies, my message is simple:  the fate of a robust, global climate change agreement rests with you.

At the informal lunch that President Hollande, President [Ollanta] Humala and I convened at the United Nations in late September, leaders reached a shared political understanding on the long-term implications of a new climate agreement.  Several of you were there.

Leaders concurred that a Paris agreement must be a turning point — and that it must send a loud, clear signal to citizens and the private sector that the transformation of the global economy is inevitable, beneficial, and already underway.

They also agreed that an equitable transition to low-emission and climate-resilient development is vital to manage climate risks — and that such a transition offers enormous opportunities for building safer, healthier, more prosperous and sustainable societies.

I call on you today to build on these shared understandings and use this gathering to seek consensus and build bridges.  Leaders must prioritize the common good.  Reducing the risks of catastrophic climate change is in the national interest of every country.

Over the next two weeks, I will be calling upon many of you to enlist your help in resolving key issues in the negotiations.  Your direct guidance is essential for removing some of the roadblocks to a universal agreement.

The world is expecting you to reach a decisive climate agreement here in Paris.  We must not leave here with a weak accord that leaves the difficult decisions for future leaders to solve.  Now is the time to be bold, and to act in the best interests of not only this generation, but generations to come, whose security, prosperity and well-being will be profoundly affected by the decisions you make — or fail to make — here in Paris.

Thank you again, President Hollande, for hosting us today and for hosting this historic climate conference.