The White House announced at a Paris summit Tuesday commitments from 73 U.S. companies that are joining a pledge to support action on climate change.

The goals include reducing emissions by as much as 50 percent, reducing water usage by 80 percent, and buying 100 percent renewable energy.

Also Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande announced France will give African countries $2.1 billion over the next four years to develop renewable energy sources and replace fossil fuels.

U.S. President Barack Obama met Tuesday at the summit with a group of small island nations impacted by climate change.

Protecting forests

Several heads of government attending the U.N. climate summit Monday endorsed action to protect and restore forests.

Brazil and Norway declared that they will extend their partnership to preserve Brazil’s rain forests; and Britain, Germany, and Norway announced an aim to provide $1 billion per year for the next five years as incentive for countries to pursue emissions-reduction goals set out by the United Nations.

Colombia also announced that it will implement its plans for so-called “green growth” with the help of Britain, Germany, and Norway.

President Obama urged world leaders Monday to “rise to this moment,” telling them their progress at the summit will be measured by “the suffering that is averted and a planet that is preserved.”

Obama said the nations of the leaders in attendance share a sense of urgency about their goal of curbing fossil fuel emissions and limiting the rise in global temperatures, and cited some progress the United States and others have already made.

“Our task here in Paris is to turn these achievements into an enduring framework for human progress,” he said. “Not a stopgap solution, but a long-term strategy that gives the world confidence in a low carbon future.”

The leaders are working to agree on binding measures to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution levels. The U.N. weather agency says the average global temperature will have risen by 1 degree Celsius by the end of 2015, halfway to the limit the U.N. is seeking to impose in order to prevent potentially catastrophic global effects.

 

Call for nations to act

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the summit “must make a decisive turning point” and that the leaders “have the power to secure the well-being of this and succeeding generations.”

“You are here today to write the script for a new future, a future of hope and promise of increased prosperity, security and dignity for all,” Ban said. “We need the world to know that we are headed to a low-emissions, climate resilient future and there is no going back.”

French President Hollande has warned of obstacles for the 195-nation summit in reaching a compulsory deal in Paris, including the legality of any accord, financing for poorer countries and monitoring of countries’ pledges to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

So far this year, 183 nations have issued long-term plans to cope with climate change, but difficult negotiations are expected at the summit and related international meetings that run through December 11.

An attempt in Copenhagen in 2009 to craft a global deal foundered at an ill-tempered summit, with divisions between rich and poor countries.

 

Obama on Monday called for an agreement that paves the way for regularly updated targets.

 

“Targets that are not set for each of us but by each of us, taking into account the differences that each nation is facing,” he told the summit.

Before the conference opened, Obama met with Chinese President Xi Jinping and said the two countries have a common vision of what is needed in an agreement, including steps toward a low carbon global economy and helping financial support to help developing nations adapt.

“As the two largest economies in the world and the two largest carbon emitters, we have both determined that it is our responsibility to take action, and since our historic joint announcement of our post-2020 climate targets in Beijing last year, more than 180 countries have followed in announcing their own targets,” Obama said. “So our leadership on this issue has been absolutely vital.”

The U.S. has pledged to cut emissions up to 28 percent by 2025, while China said targets to peak its emissions by about 2030.

Obama also held separate talks Monday on the “urgent threat” of climate change with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The U.S. president highlighted India’s work on a solar alliance to deploy affordable clean energy to developing countries.

 

“I want to emphasize that Paris must recognize and protect the ability of countries like India to pursue the priorities of development, growth and poverty eradication. I know that is something that is deeply felt by Prime Minister Modi,” Obama said.

Together, the U.S., China and India account for about half of the world’s emissions of carbon dioxide, a gas that traps heat in the atmosphere and that scientists have identified as a leading cause of the rising global temperatures.

 

Paris security

France says about 2,800 police and soldiers are securing the Le Bourget conference site, and 6,300 others will deploy in Paris. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said nearly 1,000 people believed to pose security risks have been denied entry into France.

 

Ahead of the Paris summit, hundreds of thousands of protesters joined worldwide demonstrations Sunday calling for adoption of global environmental control.

Activists linked hands in the heart of the French capital amid tight security, in the wake of the deadly Islamic State terrorist attacks earlier this month that killed 130 people.

 

Less than an hour after arriving in Paris, President Obama made an unannounced stop outside the Bataclan theater, laying a rose at a makeshift memorial for the 90 people gunned down during a concert on November 13.

 

Later on Monday, during his remarks at the climate summit, Obama said the world stands united in solidarity with the French capital.

 

“We salute people of Paris for insisting this crucial conference go on. An act of defiance that proves nothing will deter us from building the future we want for our children,” Obama said.
…