The high-level, ministerial segment of the UN Climate Change Conference in Lima kicked off today with messages of urgency and hope, with the UN's top climate change official drawing on Inca culture to underline the urgent need to sow the seeds of a better future through climate action.

More than 100 ministers and several Heads of State and Government are in Lima to provide guidance to negotiators and help resolve the most difficult political issues.

At the opening ceremony of the high-level segment, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said there is still a chance to stay below the internationally agreed ceiling of a less than 2 degrees Celsius average global temperature rise, but that the window of opportunity is closing fast:

All countries must be part of the solution. All of society must be engaged. This is not a time for tinkering – it is a time for transformation.

Ban Ki-moon on his way to the podium at COP 20. Image: Jan Golinski

The head of the UN said he was heartened by the fact that not only governments, but financial institutions, businesses and civil society leaders had answered his call for climate action at the UN Climate Summit in New York in September, which was preceded by climate rallies around the world. Around 400 thousand people were on the streets of New York alone.

From Manhattan to Mumbai to Melbourne, hundreds of thousands of people marched for climate action. Thousands of businesses and communities across the globe are stepping up,

he said. He also said that governments were meanwhile responding in unprecedented ways, and that he was encouraged by the early announcements of long-term climate targets by China, the US and the EU. These “provide the foundations for ever higher levels of ambition.”

The UN Secretary-General outlined five requests to the governments meeting in Peru. These are to:

1. Deliver a balanced, well-structured and coherent draft text for the Paris 2015 agreement, along with reaching a common understanding on the scope and status of contributions of the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to the agreement.
2. Achieve tangible progress in solidifying the climate finance regime, with further contributions to the Green Climate Fund announced in Lima and the pathway towards the goal of 100 billion USD per year by 2020 more clearly defined.
3. Prioritize providing adaptation support and resilience building for the most vulnerable, especially the least developed and small island developing states.
4. Decide how to stimulate and facilitate cooperation on a more comprehensive range of actions by all actors, including the private sector, civil society, cities and other sub-national actors.
5. Swiftly ratify the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, which established its second commitment period.

The UN Secretary-General also said that combating climate change was an essential part of the foundation of sustainable development:

We cannot treat climate change as a separate issue from sustainable development, or we risk losing all the hard-won development gains of the past decades.

Also speaking at the opening of the high-level segment, the Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Convention Christiana Figueres referenced the symbolism of the calendar of the Inca, which characterizes this time of the year as a season for planting. She said:

Here in Lima we must plant the seeds of a much more secure, just and prosperous world for all. The calendar of the Incas is not, however the only calendar that guides us. The calendar of science loudly warns us that we are running out of time.

Image: Felipe Huaman Poma de Ayala (Wamán Poma)

Ms. Figueres also said that the time had come to leave incremental change behind and to courageously steer the world toward a profound and fundamental transformation. Noting the progress already made at the Lima conference, she said:

COP 20 started and continues to session in a spirit of unprecedented optimism and achievement. Never before have we had such an opportunity, never before have we had such an urgency for transformation. Here in Lima we must plant the seeds of a new, global construct of high quality growth, based on unparalleled collaboration bridging all previous divides.

See the statements made during the welcoming ceremony of the COP 20 High-level Segment

News taken from: UNFCCC