On September 23, the opening ceremony of the United Nations Climate Summit was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York. The one-day United Nations Climate Summit was held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York on the same day. The summit was convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and is the largest international conference ever devoted to climate change issues. It is also the most important meeting before the 2015 Paris Climate Conference. Xinhua News Agency reporter Niu Xiaolei took the 2014 UN Climate Summit to open at the UN headquarters in New York on the 23rd. At the opening ceremony of the summit, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to take action to address climate change and commit to a new climate agreement in 2015.
At 8 am on the 23rd, US Eastern Time, the Climate Summit kicked off at the UN General Assembly Hall with a climate change short film produced by American environmentalists. Ban Ki-moon then delivered an opening speech saying that climate change is threatening the hard-won prosperity and the opportunities that billions of people should have, becoming a decisive issue in the modern era.
Ban Ki-moon said that the human, environmental and financial costs of climate change are becoming increasingly unaffordable and have become an unprecedented challenge for mankind. He stressed that all people and countries are not immune to the effects of climate change, so he called on governments to commit to a universal climate agreement at the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference to control the temperature of the Earth at the end of the century. We contribute to the strength within 2 degrees Celsius.
This UN climate summit lasted for one day. Representatives of governments, enterprises, financial institutions and civil society organizations, including more than 120 national leaders, will speak at the meeting.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli will attend the climate summit and deliver a keynote speech at the summit.
Sam Kutesa, President of the 69th UN General Assembly, also addressed the opening ceremony of the summit. Kutesa said that climate change is an imminent challenge and may also be an irreversible threat. It not only affects human life, but also inhibits efforts to eradicate poverty and achieve sustainable development.
He pointed out that this summit will have two goals: one is to gather political momentum for a new climate change agreement in Paris in 2015; the other is to make bold measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase the ability to cope with climate change. In order to maintain the political momentum to deal with climate change, Kutesa announced that the UN High-level Meeting on Climate Change will be held in June next year.
The summit was not part of the formal negotiations of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. No negotiations were held during the summit, but the one-day summit was very tightly arranged. After the opening ceremony, leaders will hold meetings in three venues to announce their new actions to address climate change.
In addition, the summit will organize an “action meeting platform” to introduce new initiatives taken by governments, businesses and civil society organizations to explore countermeasures in key areas. Another four special sessions will discuss important issues and policies related to climate action. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will summarize the outcome of the summit at the end of the summit.