World leaders from hundreds of countries came together at the UN Climate Summit yesterday to address the complexities of climate change.
The Climate Summit was held in New York, where Climate Week is currently being celebrated and hosted almost 130 world leaders.The world leaders in attendance included but were not limited to: The Presidents of Mexico, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Uganda, Indonesia, Namibia, as well as the Prime Ministers of Norway, Japan, Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago and Grenada. U.S. President Barack Obama and UK Prime Minister David Cameron were also in attendance.
Notable absences were leaders from China and India, who are known for being among the world’s biggest carbon emitters. Prime Minister Tony Abbott did not attend, however Foreign Minister Julie Bishop did attend for Australia. Bishop stated that Australia does take the threat of climate change seriously and that the Australian government are taking steps to reduce emissions.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon called on world leaders from government, finance, business and civil society to the Climate Summit to bring bold announcements and actions that would reduce emissions and strengthen climate resilience in their countries. According to The Australian, Bishop did not announce bold climate change initiatives at the Climate Summit.
Not only were world leaders in attendance, but there were also an extensive range of speakers who were present to deliver speeches. These speakers included but were not limited to the Mayors of New York, Rio de Janeiro, Seoul, Zhenjiang and Paris–Paris is the location of the next major climate meeting with the aim of a global agreement being reached to limit the world to less than a two degree rise in global temperature. Actor Leonardo DiCaprio was also in attendance and called on leaders to put a price on carbon and eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.
The official website for the UN Climate Summit 2014 can be found here.
Image via Pixabay.