PARIS (Sputnik) — The international community will face dire consequences if states do not succeed to reach a historic climate deal at the ongoing Paris conference, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.
"If a global community cannot come together to rise this challenge, we will be liable for a collective overall failure and historic consequence… We will have no excuse," Kerry told reporters.
"We are seeing momentum for an agreement that never before existed. This conference in Paris may be the best chance we have to correct the path of our planet. You don't need to be a scientist to see that our planet is already changing. Extreme weather has become a new normal," Kerry added.
High level segments of the major Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change kicked off on Monday. At the moment, officials from almost 200 states are reviewing the draft text of the final agreement that has been prepared at the Paris conference over the past week.
"Clean energy is not only a solution. Climate change is also one of the greatest economic opportunities the world has ever known. By 2035 the demands for energy investment will reach nearly $50 trillion and much of that will be in clean energy," Kerry also said.
The US state secretary added that the clean energy sector has been growing at an incredible rate, helping to create jobs and ease poverty in the world.
He added that these factors are subject to change "from one year to another" making flexibility a must for the universal deal.
The French capital is currently hosting the 21st UN Climate Change Conference, which is due to wind up on December 11. Representatives of 195 countries are expected to reach on Friday a legally binding agreement on climate change that would replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, dealing with the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
The global deal is expected to help manage climate change effects and put world economies on a path toward sustainable growth, with a focus on decarbonization.
