LOC15:40
12:40 GMT
PARIS, Nov 30 (KUNA) -- French President Francois Hollande and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Monday urged world leaders to seize the "historic" opportunity of the Paris COP 21 climate conference to take serious and lasting decisions to meet and even surpass the goals set to tackle climate change.
The COP 21, this year presided by France, is part of the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCC) which seeks to rein in damaging greenhouse gas emissions which are wreaking havoc on international weathers systems, causing much suffering in poorest countries hit by drought and flooding.
The Kuwaiti delegation to COP21 is led by His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, who is representing His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah in Paris. The delegation also includes First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and a number of senior advisors and officials from the Kuwaiti government.
"This is about the future of the planet, the future of life," Hollande told the 150 heads of state and government during the opening session of the conference.
He said it was "a historic day" and he urged all to do their utmost to get an agreement by the wrap-up date of December 12.
"We have to leave our children a planet safe from catastrophe, a viable planet," the French leader said, citing the growing number of natural disasters striking all areas of the globe, but which affect mostly the poorer countries, where "the victims can be counted in the millions."
Hollande spoke out about the injustice of climate change and said "we cannot accept that those poorest countries which emit the least (greenhouse gases) are punished the most."
He warned of the dire consequences of not resolving this situation and he cautioned that climate change and global warming will provoke many more migrants, population shifts and strife than have been created by world conflicts.
He said that availability of one of the world's scarcest resources - water - would be even more restricted if immediate steps are not taken.
"Hope has been born with the creation of the COP 21," Hollande remarked, noting that 190 States have come up with action plans to combat climate change and there have been significant advances in less-polluting renewable energy sources.
Nonetheless, he called for a "credible trajectory" of getting a limit of global warming of two degrees or even 1.5 degrees Celsius above "pre-industrial levels", with a regular evaluation of countries' performances every five years and he spoke for solidarity between developed and developing nations, which would be provided by technology transfer and also a USD 100bn annual fund to offset global warming impacts.
He told world leaders they had "a moral obligation" to conclude a good accord and he reminded them they were in Paris "to decide the very future of the planet."
Hollande said "the agreement must be binding," a position that might meet resistance from some countries who don't want constraints to be legally-imposed or failings to be sanctioned. The US is among those countries most resistant to a "legally-binding" accord because of opposition in the Congress.
The UN Secretary-General, for his part, was insistent that the COP 21 should aim to meet the most demanding targets and he said "good will, statements of good intention are not longer good enough" given the climate situation.
He said that "the welfare of present and future generations" was in the hands of participants.
Urging "compromise and consensus," Ban said "Paris must be a turning point" and the world leaders will have to go further to avoid the "grave consequences" of global warming. (Pick up previous)
jk.mt