Activities of Secretary-General in France, 4-8, 9-12 December
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon flew from New York to Paris on Thursday evening, 3 December, to resume participation in the twenty-first Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP).
Upon arrival in Paris on Friday, 4 December, he attended a series of meetings at Paris City Hall to underscore the critical role of local and regional leaders to reach an agreement, including a high-level meeting for local leaders hosted by Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, and Michael Bloomberg, his Special Envoy on Cities and Climate Change. (See Press Release SG/SM/17389)
He also participated in the launch of the Cities Climate Finance Report and the Fourth Compact of States and Regions event. (See Press Releases SG/SM/17388 and SG/SM/17386)
On Saturday, 5 December, the Secretary-General began his day with a meeting with COP President and Foreign Minister of France, Laurent Fabius. Mr. Fabius and his team briefed the Secretary-General and his delegation on the status of the negotiations.
He also participated in an interview with United Nations Messenger of Peace, American actor Leonardo di Caprio.
Throughout the day, the Secretary-General had a series of bilateral meetings with various delegations, including Izabella Teixeira, Brazil’s Minister for Environment; Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Representative on Climate Change; a delegation of Democratic Senators from the United States Senate; and Yoon Seong-kyu, Minister for the Environment of the Republic of Korea, as well as a separate meeting with a congressional delegation from that country.
He also attended a number of high-level events. Speaking at the closing session of “Action Day”, chaired by French President François Hollande, he announced a “Climate Action 2016” summit of leaders from government, business, cities, civil society and academia on 5-6 May next year in Washington, D.C. (See Press Release SG/SM/17393)
Before that, the Secretary-General was invited by the Presidents of the French Assembly and French Senate to speak to a gathering of world parliamentarians organized by the International Parliamentary Union at the National Assembly. He said that Parliamentarians have a key role to play in translating global commitments into meaningful, enforceable and ambitious action at the national level. (See Press Release SG/SM/17392)
At the Conference, the Secretary-General also participated in an event on the Arctic, sponsored by Norway. There, he met with young Norwegian explorers whom he had spoken to earlier in the year when travelling to the Norwegian Arctic.
On Sunday, 6 December, the Secretary-General began his day with a meeting with African Ministers for the Environment, telling them that Africa had an enormous stake in the Conference’s success as the continent is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. (See Press Release SG/SM/17395)
The Secretary-General also held a series of bilateral meetings in conjunction with the Conference. These included Tamayo Marukawa, Minister for the Environment of Japan; Won Hee-ryong, Governor of Jeju Provincial Government, Republic of Korea; and Jack Ma, Chairman of Alibaba Group.
The Secretary-General then paid a visit to the Tara research ship, an ocean sailing boat that focuses on studying the impact of climate on oceans. After speaking with children aboard the ship, the Secretary-General told journalists that we must preserve our oceans’ health to preserve a healthy and prosperous planet.
In the afternoon, the Secretary-General visited the Bataclan Theatre, the site of the main terrorist attack in Paris on the evening of 13 November. Joined by Paris Mayor, Ms. Hidalgo, he laid a wreath in front of the theatre and observed a moment of silence. He and the Mayor then travelled a short distance to enjoy a coffee at the Bonne Bière café, the first of the four restaurants attacked on 13 November to reopen. There, the Secretary-General said that today he, too, was a Parisian and that Paris now stood as a symbol of resistance to terror.
On Monday, 7 December, the Secretary-General opened the high-level session of the Conference, saying that the task was to translate the historic call for action into a durable, dynamic, credible and fair climate agreement. (See Press Release SG/SM/17396)
A short while later, he told reporters that he felt there was strong momentum at the climate talks, but urged all those gathered in Paris not to squander it.
Later in the day, in Paris, the Secretary-General attended a gathering of business leaders organized by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, calling for ambitious policies that will help achieve a low-emissions climate-resilient future. (See Press Release SG/SM/17398)
He then addressed the high-level closing of the Thematic Energy Day. (See Press Release SG/SM/17400)
He also participated in a youth and social media engagement at #EarthToParis Climate Hub.
Throughout the day, the Secretary-General held bilateral meetings with Sultan Al Jaber, Special Envoy for Energy and Climate Change of the United Arab Emirates; Al Gore, former Vice-President of the United States, as well as Lyndon Rive, Chief Executive Officer of SolarCity; Paul Oquist Kelley, Nicaragua’s Minister for National Policy; Miguel Arias Cañete, European Union Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action, and Carole Dieschbourg, Minister for the Environment of Luxembourg; Edna Molewa, Minister for Water and Environmental Affairs of South Africa; Na Kyung-won, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Republic of Korea; and Jerry Brown, Governor of California.
On Tuesday, 8 December, the Secretary-General held bilateral meetings with Rafael Pacchiano Alamán, Minister of Environment of Mexico; Ali Bin Al-Naimi, Minister of Petroleum and Natural Resources of Saudi Arabia; Alexander Bedritsky, Adviser to the President and Special Envoy for Climate of the Russian Federation; Shri Prakash Javadekar, Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change of India; and Li Su Yong, Foreign Minister of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The Secretary-General also spoke at a business forum on the Lima-Paris Action Agenda, where he told business leaders that the collective momentum among the private sector for climate action was growing daily. (See Press Release SG/SM/17401)
He then met with United States Secretary of State John Kerry. Speaking to the press afterwards, the Secretary-General welcomed Mr. Kerry’s initiative to hold the third meeting of the International Syria Support Group in New York on 18 December. On the climate change talks under way in Paris, the Secretary-General said that with three and a half days to go, he hoped that the parties will accelerate the speed of negotiations.
The Secretary-General left Paris for Helsinki, Finland, to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of the country’s membership to the United Nations (see Press Release SG/T/3067), and was back in Paris on Wednesday, 9 December, at night.
The following day, he resumed his series of bilateral meetings in Paris, including with COP President Fabius; Mr. Xie, China’s Climate Change representative; Canada’s new Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Catherine McKenna; Brazil’s Minister for Environment, Ms. Teixera; Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga of Tuvalu; and the Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Hoesung Lee.
Early in the afternoon, he met with a group of civil society leaders, representing a broad array of organizations, who had gathered more than 6 million signatures encouraging Governments to adopt an ambitious agreement in Paris. Speaking to the press with them at his side, he encouraged civil society to stay mobilized after Paris, telling them to hold Government, community and business leaders accountable.
He then spoke at the Momentum for Change awards ceremony. (See Press Release SG/SM/17407)
On Friday, 11 December, he continued his work with meetings with COP President Fabius; Julie Bishop, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Australia; Mr. Xie, Ms. Molewa, South Africa’s Water and Environment minister; Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Singapore; Mr. Kerry, Secretary of State of the United States; Shri Javadekar, India’s Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change; Claudia Salerno Caldera, Presidential Commissioner for Climate Change of Venezuela; Atif Al-Jemaili Al-Harbi, Senior Adviser to the Minister for the Environment and Chief Negotiator of Kuwait; and Mohammed Bindaina, Chief Executive of the Supreme Council of Environment of Bahrain.
The Secretary-General told reporters that those discussions were by far the most complicated and most difficult that he had ever attended, but that they were also the most important for humanity.
Finally, on Saturday, 12 December, the Secretary-General began his day with a bilateral meeting with the President of the COP, Foreign Minister Fabius of France, to receive an update on the status of the talks.
The Secretary-General also had a series of bilateral meetings with other delegations as the COP negotiations were coming to an end, including with President Hollande of France; Minster Xie; and two meetings with Mr. Kelley, Minister for National Policy and Head of Delegation for Nicaragua.
He delivered remarks at the meeting of the “Comité de Paris” as the final draft was presented to the delegations. The Secretary-General commended the negotiators for their commitment and engagement in the process, and urged them to get the job done. “The whole world is watching,” he said, and “billions of people are relying on your wisdom”. (See Press Release SG/SM/17410)
A few hours later, the Secretary-General returned to the plenary hall at the Le Bourget for the official adoption of the COP declaration. The Secretary-General told a jubilant crowd that all of the delegations had “listened to people — the young, the poor and the vulnerable, including indigenous peoples, from every corner of the globe” and that they had done their duty in safeguarding the world for “generations to come”. (See Press Release SG/SM/17412)
“What was once unthinkable has now become unstoppable,” the Secretary-General added.
He stayed late into the night, leaving the podium early on Sunday morning after the last official delegation had taken the floor.
Just before leaving the conference centre, the Secretary-General joined President Hollande of France in visiting the COP control centre and thanking the first responders for ensuring a safe and secure conference.
The Secretary-General returned to New York on Sunday, 13 December.