In the wake of the 400,000 strong Climate March in New York and the Flood Wall Street protest, the United Nations hosted a Climate Summit in New York on the 23 September 2014. The event was intended to be a catalyst for the development of a binding, fair, and ambitious international agreement upon climate change.

http://youtu.be/-vaajVtgRuI The United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

In his opening address, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon observed: ‘We are not here to talk. We are here to make history.’

The Secretary-General warned that ‘today the dreams of people throughout the world hang in the balance.’ He stressed that ‘climate change threatens hard-won peace, prosperity, and opportunity for billions of people.’

Ban Ki-Moon emphasized that climate change posed significant challenges: ‘The human, environmental and financial cost of climate change is fast becoming unbearable.’

Ban Ki-Moon hoped that there were also opportunities to develop a clean, healthy, fair, and stable world: ‘A low-carbon, climate resilient future will be a better future.’ He called for public and private investment in climate solutions, such as renewable energy: ‘We must work together to mobilise money and move markets.’ He noted: ‘Economists have shown that this comes at minimal extra cost, while the benefits to our people and our planet are monumental.’ Ban Ki-Moon also insisted: ‘We must begin to capitalize the Green Climate Fund.’ He also advocated a price on carbon: ‘There is no more powerful way to drive the market transformation we need.’

Accordingly, Ban Ki-Moon urged the members of the United Nations: ‘We must invest in climate-resilient societies that protect all, especially the most vulnerable.’ He emphasized: ‘I ask all Governments to commit to a meaningful, universal climate agreement in Paris in 2015, and to do their fair share to limit global temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius.’