Janos Pasztor, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Climate Change, said the climate change agreement which world leaders are expected to sign in December has to take us to a less than 2 degree global warming path.
He said this in a statement issued on Wednesday, in New York, in the run up to the Conference of States Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, known as COP-21, as well as the next steps to be taken to ensure an ambitious outcome.
Pasztor this has become imperative because it is the ultimate test of the whole package and the global expectation is that there would be a good agreement signed.
“There has to be something that is there for the long term so that there is a clear signal that is provided to the market and to other actors that we are going in a certain direction of increasingly low carbon development.
“It also has to have dimension of solidarity with those who are more vulnerable, and those who are less capable of taken action on their own without financial and technological support,” he said.
The UN official also said he had been up in the Arctic with the UN Secretary-General recently where already they are measuring 2 degree warming over the baseline which is twice the global average.
“You see the impact everywhere, but he also drew attention to a lot of incredible solutions especially when it comes to renewable energy.
“If you see what has happened in Denmark and Germany and China, in different parts of the world, it just really amazing,” he said.
Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande, have stressed the importance and different ways of engaging Heads of State and Governments on climate change.
Ban met Hollande on Tuesday in Paris to discuss a wide range of global issues, including the upcoming climate change conference in Paris.
They also agreed on the importance of generating signals about the climate finance package for COP-21 as early as possible, such as at the meeting of Finance Ministers in Lima in October.
Ban and Hollande also agreed on the importance of operationalising the Green Climate Fund, and of reaching out to all UN member states to further accelerate momentum in the coming months.
