(Newswire.net — September 19, 2014) — UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited world leaders, from government, finance, business, and civil society to the Climate Summit 2014 on September 23 to galvanize and catalyze climate action.
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Ban Ki-moon has asked world leaders to bring bold announcements and actions to the Summit that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement in 2015.
About 120 heads of state and government are expected to attend the summit on Tuesday in New York for the United Nations General Assembly.
Reversing the impacts of climate change has become a legacy issue for Obama, who has struggled to make headway on foreign and domestic policy goals since his re-election in 2012. A series of executive actions and other moves have followed.
The Obama administration’s renewed focus on the issue has started to change the international perception of the United States’ role, said State Department climate change Special Envoy Todd Stern.
“There is no question the United States is in stronger standing,” Stern told reporters.
The summit, an effort to move global leaders closer to an ambitious climate deal due to be finalized next year, will allow the United States “to showcase actions we are taking across the government and across the country,” said John Podesta, one of Obama’s senior advisors.
Podesta said that although the leaders of China and India, the major emerging economies, will skip the summit, Obama has bilateral meetings with them scheduled for November and late September, respectively.
Ahead of the meeting, the White House this week unveiled new executive actions and public-private partnerships with major companies to boost the use of renewable energy and target potent greenhouse gases.
Administration officials, including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy and Jason Furman, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, will fan out across the country in a “full-court press” next week to highlight US moves on climate, Podesta said.
Earlier on Thursday, the State Department submitted to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change its vision of what a post-2020 global climate agreement should look like.
Details were not immediately available, but the State Department said it will submit the proposed U.S. contribution to the global climate deal by March.
Climate Summit 2014 provides a unique opportunity for leaders to champion an ambitious vision, anchored in action that will enable a meaningful global agreement in 2015.