(MENAFN- QNA) More than 100 heads of state and government addressed a special United Nations summit on climate change, pledging to reduce the threatening rise of global temperatures, but time is running out to reach a deal by the Paris climate conference next year.
Leaders agreed that climate change was a "defining issue of our time" and that "bold action" is needed to reduce carbon emissions that are becoming trapped in the atmosphere and are dangerously increasing temperatures worldwide. But they were short of specific commitments to make that happen.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said "We are not here to talk, we are here to make history."
The leaders agreed to the stated goal of preventing the temperatures from increasing by 2 degrees Celsius from the days before industrialization. They must now change legislation in their countries to curb emissions and make that happen.
One of the main stumbling blocks has been the reluctance of rich countries to pay poorer countries for the technology to decrease their release of carbon into the atmosphere.
France on Tuesday joined Germany in committing $1 billion to the Green Climate Fund, set up to assist developing countries fight global warming. But a $100 billion is needed by the year 2020.
The private sector attended the conference and made some of the biggest contributions. Oil and gas industry leaders committed to reduce methane emissions by 2020.
A coalition of 160 institutions, governments and individuals pledged to divest $50 billion from fossil fuel companies and put the money into alternative energy instead.
Some of the largest meat and agriculture retailers said they held 500 million farmers change their supply chains to cut emissions.
28 governments, 35 companies, 16 indigenous groups and 45 non-governmental organizations declared that they would halve the loss of natural forests by 2030. (MORE)
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