Climate summit has duty to Paris: Hunt

In response to last week’s devastating terrorist attacks in Paris, the French government has banned large public marches and demonstrations during an upcoming United Nations climate-change conference.

But Prime Minister Manuel Valls said on Monday that “without a doubt” concerts and other gatherings of a “festive” nature would be cancelled. Nonetheless, French officials have stated that no leaders of the world participating at the UN Climate Summit requested the event to be postponed.

President Obama and several foreign leaders attending the Group of 20 meeting Monday in Turkey said they intend to reach a deal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions when they convene November 30-Dec.

Planned action at the end of the two weeks of talks, at which governments aim to agree a new global treaty on tackling climate change, has also been stopped.

Mr Hunt, who recently returned from pre-conference talks in Paris and will head back for the summit, said walking away from the city without an agreement would be a “dereliction of duty”.

A memorial for the victims killed in Friday’s attacks in Paris in front of the French Embassy in Berlin.

King welcomed voluntary commitments to curb climate change submitted by 163 countries, which represent those responsible for over 90 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions. “It will go ahead with reinforced security measures”, said Fabius.

The decision by French police has left organizers scrambling to beef up the dozens of climate marches scheduled for November 29, several of which will take place in France.

The UN climate conference, for which about 40,000 delegates, journalists, observers, NGOs and other participants are accredited, will be “limited to negotiation”, said Valls – excluding certain planned side-events. The conference comes as United Kingdom scientists predicted last week that the global mean temperature in 2015 would mark a 1 degree Celsius rise above pre-industrial levels for the first time ever, representing what researcher Stephen Belcher called a clear move into “uncharted territory” for climate change.

While a major march planned for November 29 has been scrapped, there will be more than 2,000 rallies in cities worldwide to press demands for action from the leaders in Paris, said the envoy.