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Climate Summit 2014 – the parliamentary perspective

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong agree to promote parliamentary action to implement any future climate change pact. ©UN Photo/Kim Haughton

IPU Secretary General Martin Chungong will take part in the Climate Summit 2014 on 23 September in New York where world leaders will push forward efforts to reach an ambitious and legally binding global agreement on climate change.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has invited leaders from government, parliament, finance, business and civil society to this event to galvanize climate action. He has asked for bold announcements and actions to be announced at the Summit that will reduce emissions, strengthen climate resilience, and mobilize political will for a meaningful legal agreement at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) session in Paris in 2015. By the end of the Paris meeting, all nations, including the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, would be bound by a universal agreement on climate change for the first time in more than 20 years of UN negotiations.

Long concerned by climate change, IPU has taken the lead in mobilizing parliaments to take an active part in this process. As part of these efforts MPs will meet in parallel to the UN Climate Change Conference (COP20/CMP10) in the Peruvian capital, Lima from 1 to 12 December. They will examine how to enhance the efficiency of parliamentary action on climate change, in particular through oversight of the implementation of international agreements at the national level.