(MENAFN- QNA) South Korean President Park Geun-hye called for global action to combat the climate crisis, pledging to contribute up to US$100 million to a UN organization aimed at raising funds to curb atmospheric warming.
Park said the contribution includes US$50 million that South Korea is currently paying to the Green Climate Fund (GCF), a UN body whose secretariat went into operation in South Korea's Songdo, west of Seoul, last year, according to South Korea's (Yonhap) News Agency.
"The early capitalization of the GCF is vital to the launch of a new climate regime next year," Park said in a speech at a UN climate summit at the UN headquarters in New York. "So we look to your contributions to the fund."
The climate summit, hosted by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is meant to galvanize action on cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases that scientists blame for global warming.
Park called for a change in people's perceptions toward climate change, saying they need to see climate action not as a burden but as an opportunity.
"How we view the climate agenda - as boon or bane - will bring huge differences," Park said, adding that investing in the chance to unlock new energy industries and jobs can ignite fresh engines of future growth.
Park also called on all countries to join efforts to combat climate change, though she acknowledged that cutting carbon dioxide can be a burden for developing countries.
South Korea has made a voluntary commitment to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30% from business-as-usual levels by 2020. Seoul made the pledge in 2009, despite not being subject to a mandatory reduction requirement under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international deal aimed at fighting global warming.
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