Climate talks begin in Paris; goal may be hard to reach

PARIS – Declaring that the future of the planet is at stake, more than 150 world leaders assembled outside Paris on Monday to launch an ambitious attempt to confront climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

After decades of difficult negotiations and an unsuccessful attempt to strike a deal six years ago, President Barack Obama said a turning point may have been reached.

“What should give us hope,” he told fellow leaders, “is the fact that our nations share a sense of urgency about this challenge and a growing realization that it is within our power to do something about it.”

The United Nations conference comes at a time of record high temperatures, more extreme droughts and storms, shrinking glaciers and melting ice packs – events that have helped make climate science more widely accepted. That, coupled with major advances in cleaner energy sources, has increased the willingness of some of the world’s biggest polluters to act.

The leaders of nations responsible for more than 95 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions arrived at the conference at Le Bourget, on the northern edge of Paris, armed with plans to reduce their outputs.

But the proposals on the table are not projected to achieve the target of limiting rising global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels, the threshold at which scientists believe most of the worst effects of climate change could be avoided. Organizers say countries will need to do more.

“The future of your people, the future of the people of the world, is in your hands,” U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told leaders as the talks kicked off. “We cannot afford indecision, half measures or merely gradual approaches. Our goal must be a transformation.”

The high-level meeting began with a moment of silence for the victims of deadly attacks in France, Lebanon, Tunisia and elsewhere – a wave of violence that threatened to overshadow longer-term concerns about climate change.

“These tragic events force us to concentrate on the essentials,” French President Francois Hollande said. “We must leave our children more than a world free from terror. We must leave them a planet that is preserved from catastrophes, a viable planet.”

The biggest issue facing the 151 heads of state and government at the summit is who should bear most of the burden of closing that gap: wealthy Western nations that have polluted the most historically, or developing countries such as China and India, now the biggest and third-biggest emitters of greenhouse gases?

Major questions still have to be resolved, including who should assume the cost of shifting the world’s economies to solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

Developing countries have long argued that the burden should fall on the countries that got rich through the use of fossil fuels.

Severe air pollution has helped persuade China and India to seek to reduce their reliance on coal-fired energy. As the summit got underway, their capitals were blanketed in smog; Beijing issued an “orange” pollution alert, the second-highest level.

Still, Chinese President Xi Jinping said the deal reached in Paris must recognize differences between developing and more established economies, and include aid for poor countries.

“Addressing climate change should not deny the legitimate needs of developing countries to reduce poverty and improve living standards,” he said.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said developed nations could make the biggest difference on the environment. “National commitments must be consistent with the carbon space nations occupy,” he said.

Wealthier nations also have a responsibility to make cleaner energy affordable and accessible in the developing world, he said. “This is in our collective interest,” he said.

Many leaders who spoke Monday want the agreement to include legally binding targets. That could be a deal-breaker for the U.S., which needs approval from the Republican-controlled Senate to sign a binding treaty.

In his address to the conference, Obama acknowledged that taking strong action on the environment has not always been a political winner. But he noted that the U.S. and other global economies have grown even as fossil fuel emissions have leveled off.

“We have proved that strong economic growth and a safer environment no longer have to conflict with one another,” he said. “And that should give us hope.”

By inviting Obama and other leaders to the opening days of the summit, organizers hoped to send a clear signal: Paris is not Copenhagen.

In 2009, a similar effort to reach a binding agreement to address climate change had all but collapsed by the time Obama and his counterparts arrived in the Danish capital near the conclusion of that summit.

Officials hope the participation of world leaders at the start of this year’s conference, with commitments for action in hand as they arrive, will provide the momentum needed to reach a strong accord, even if it falls short of the 2-degree target.