联合国气候大会巴黎开幕

At the UN climate summit which starts Monday in Paris, governments are expected to adopt a landmark deal to fight climate change and help vulnerable countries deal with rising sea levels, extreme weather events and other effects of global warming.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon says the "time is now" for world leaders to act to improve people's lives.

"The time is now to act. We don't have any time to waste. Leaders should bear and feel a moral and political responsibility for humanity. This is the one which will really help put an end to poverty, making cities healthier, liveable, and making our lives much, much safer and more prosperous with human dignity."

More than 180 countries have signed up to climate action plans before the conference, including pledges to cut or control heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions after 2020, when the new deal is supposed to take effect.

Although optimistic about reaching a significant agreement in Paris, Ban said governments' pledges to cut global warming emissions are not enough.

"The national climate change action plan submitted by member states up until now, by more than 183 countries, we call it INDC - Intended Nationally Determined Contribution - amounts to around three degrees Centigrade (37 degrees Fahrenheit). But it's not enough. We have to do much more and faster to be able to contain the global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius (35 degrees Fahrenheit). That is our target."

Meanwhile, he also calls for plans to review targets every five years.

"There have been many discussions whether it (the reviewing process) should be every five years or ten years. But I think five years seems to get the emerging consensus among the member states."

The industrialized nations had earlier committed to long term financing support in the form of a green climate fund worth 100 billion US dollars a year to support concrete mitigation action by developing countries.

India, who has offered to cut its emissions per-unit of GDP figures to 35 percent by 2030, warned that international efforts to arrive at a climate deal will not succeed if they keep dislodging the balance of responsibilities between developed and developing countries.

Ban says he believes the member states will figure a way out.

"Countries have varying capacities of addressing this climate change agreement. Also, at the same time, (they have) different level(s) of economic development. Therefore, there should be a balance between the responsibilities of developed countries and developing countries. I'm sure that the member states will be able to find good and creative solutions."

In a separate interview, Ban also spoke highly of China's role in tackling climate change, hailing China as "a leader in promoting South-South cooperation".

For CRI, I'm Luo Bin.