Lima, Peru – December 8, 2014

The Press Conference held on the occasion of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Twentieth Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20)  and the tenth session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 10)

Buenos dias to all of you here in Lima.

I would also like to send my greetings to those watching this press conference from a remote location.

I am delighted to be visiting Peru for the first time, and happy to speak to you this morning on some important issues of interest to us all.

I thank the Government of Peru for convening us all here to renew our commitment to addressing climate change, which is one of priorities for the 69th Session of the General Assembly.

Our planet is moving towards the tipping point, with climate change threatening the existence of humankind. Small Island States are especially vulnerable.

Our planet earth is warming. Greenhouse gases concentrations are on the increase. Snow is diminishing. Ice is also diminishing. Sea-levels are rising. Droughts are becoming longer and frequent. Floods and landslides are increasing.

There is little doubt that human activity is primarily responsible for this. Inevitably, this calls for our collective urgent actions towards mitigation and adaptation.

We need to transform the current economic and social models into low carbon and ultimately climate neutral economies. Our challenge is to have a climate agreement that promotes socio-economic development in a sustainable manner.

This Conference in Lima is a decisive step forward towards achieving a universal, binding agreement in Paris in December 2015.

I hope the outcome will be ambitious and that commitments will be bold.

On a related note, the General Assembly will soon start negotiations on the Post-2015 Development Agenda, an ambitious and transformative socio economic development programme to end poverty.

Our efforts towards addressing the three dimensions of sustainable development – social, economic and environmental- clearly relate to what has brought us to Lima.

I thank you, and I will be happy to answer some questions.