Shoes step in for marchers seeking climate action in Paris

Mr Vidal said a deal would show the world that countries can work together to fight global warming as well as terrorism.

He says leaders will try to support “the most vulnerable countries” in expanding clean energy and “adapting to the effects of climate changes that we can no longer avoid”. They are hoping that Paris will be more than a symbolic summit and that a deal will be struck.

A central conclusion of the 2006 Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change was that the global costs of failing to act on climate change would outweigh the global costs of acting to mitigate it through deep reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

In the interview with CBC, Ban said the attacks in Paris can’t overshadow efforts to reach a climate change agreement at next week’s summit. “They know that they have to take action”.

With the Paris climate talks closer than ever, this study has more importance than most.

Negotiators are trying to find a compromise where parts of the deal area binding and others, such as the emissions targets, are not.

The U.S. Senate refused to ratify the Kyoto treaty, so the world’s biggest greenhouse-gas emitter didn’t have skin in the game.

Specifically concerning the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, the developed nations should be mindful that the principle, a widely recognized consensus for having taken the development stage and capabilities of the developing countries into consideration, needs to be upheld throughout the negotiations.

Niels B. Christiansen, president and CEO of Danfoss, a global producer of products and services, said China has been “quite proactive” in building a low carbon economy with the launch of a “green revolution” under Xi’s leadership.

That’s a huge step forward for the United Nations climate talks but a host of hard issues remain to be resolved before a new climate agreement can be adopted in Paris. Formally called Intended Nationally Determined Contributions, or INDCs, these will form the basis of the agreement expected to be reached.

About 20,000 pairs of shoes were laid out in the Place de la Republique in the French capital, from high heels to boots, to symbolise absent marchers after attacks by Islamic State militants killed 130 people on November 13 and led France to ban a protest that was meant to be at the heart of the global action.

Without worldwide action, global temperatures are on track to rise as much as 3.9 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, president of the Paris conference, said the goal is an ambitious agreement that all countries can agree on. Since every country has this incentive, none cuts emissions; a “tragedy of the global commons” ensues.

The European Union countries plan to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030, compared with 1990 levels.

“This shift is essential because taking timely and universal action on climate change is the only guarantee that the world can achieve the Sustainable Development Goals to end poverty, build stronger economies and safer, healthier, and more livable societies everywhere, and deliver more benefits to other developing countries”, he said.