Ban Ki-moon hopeful of ambitious agreement at Paris Climate summit

PARIS, Nov 30 (Reuters) – World leaders will launch an ambitious attempt on Monday to hold back the earth’s rising temperatures, urging each other to find common cause in two weeks of bargaining meant to steer the global economy away from dependence on fossil fuels.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says governments’ pledges to cut global warming emissions aren’t enough and should be reviewed before 2020.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande are greeting heads of state and government from around the world for high-stakes talks aimed at fighting global warming.

(AP Photo/Thibault Camus). France’s President Francois Hollande, right, shakes hand with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, prior to a meeting at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2015.

The UNSG lauded the French president’s decision to go to Malta for the Commonwealth Summit dedicated to climate change and terrorist threats on Friday.

“I am confident that China will continue to play such a role in Paris on the issue of differentiation and climate finance”, Ban said, touching upon the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, which says that countries with different economic, social, and historical backgrounds should contribute according to their differences.

“There is a time lag in the climate system”, he said.

Paris will host the 21st UN Climate Change Conference from November 30 to December 11.

The protesters were gathering ahead of critical global warming talks outside Paris.

The Sustainable Development Goals, approved by world leaders in September, are a blueprint for the global sustainable development efforts for the next 15 years. That includes parts of India.

In an interview on the eve of a United Nations climate summit in Paris, Ban told The Associated Press he has endorsed plans for reviewing targets every five years. No legally binding commitments were taken following the talks in the Danish capital.

One by one, some 150 leaders are arriving at the conference center near the Le Bourget airfield just north of Paris.

The UN climate conference will officially open Monday when the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, Laurent Fabius, is elected President of COP21.

Thousands of demonstrators gathered in central Paris Sunday and formed a human chain along the route of a long-planned protest march that was banned by France’s Socialist government in a security crackdown following attacks by Islamic extremists earlier this month. The agreement must be durable – it should provide a comprehensive, long-term vision of the opportunities created by low-emission, climate-resilient development and flexible.