World leaders to show solidarity at Paris climate conference

French police said Saturday a ban on public gatherings in Paris has been extended until November 30, when an worldwide conference on climate change is set to start in the city suburb of Le Bourget, Agence France-Presse reported.

Janos Pasztor, the United Nations assistant secretary-general for climate change, told a news conference that preparations and a few activities are affected, including a huge march on November 29 by supporters of an agreement to reduce carbon emissions that has been cancelled by the French government.

“I think it’s absolutely vital for every country, every leader, to send a signal that the viciousness of a handful of killers does not stop the world from doing vital business”, he said following an Asia-Pacific summit in Malaysia.

But he added that they are “putting their travel plans where their mouths are”, meaning that their presence in Paris should be seen as proof of how seriously they take the climate issue.

The Paris Conference of Parties (COP21) is tasked with producing the first-ever deal committing all the world’s nations to climate action starting in 2020.

The French government has said it will not “give in” toterrorism and insists the long-anticipated conference will go ahead. “That’s the bottom line”. World leaders will discuss plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions and prevent global temperatures rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. These 166 countries are responsible for approximately 90% of the worlds emissions.

He stressed that the Paris conference “must mark the floor, not the ceiling of our ambition”. A moment of hope because the future of the planet is at stake, and a moment of solidarity, too, because, there will undoubtedly be more than 100 heads of state and government who will come to Paris to attend it, she said.