Private sector urged to exert greater influence on climate action negotiations

A senior UN official on climate change on Thursday called on the private sector to make greater efforts and play a big role in future climate action negotiations.

"There are good things happening in the private sector but it is not yet having a direct impact on the negotiations," said UN Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change Janos Pasztor. "I think that's where the challenge is."

Pasztor described the recent Business and Climate Summit in Paris from May 20-21 as a "tectonic shift in the way the private sector is dealing with climate change."

Participants at the meeting called unanimously to move towards a low carbon culture, he said.

Representatives of more than 25 worldwide business networks representing over 6.5 million companies from more than 130 countries attended the Paris Summit, calling for increased investments in low carbon solutions, and green technologies and infrastructure and saying this process could be aided through putting a price on carbon to boost investment in climate friendly alternatives.

Pasztor believed both governments and the private sector needed to do more to create a more direct link.

Recent weeks have seen governments and private sector leaders meeting in Paris, France, and Berlin and Bonn, Germany, in preparation for the United Nations Climate Change Conference ( COP21) to be held in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11.

COP21 is significant because world leaders are expected to reach a universal and legally binding agreement on climate for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations at the conference.

The UN Climate Conference currently taking place in Bonn of Germany will further refine the draft text for the COP21 in order to move closer to the goal of achieving universal agreement from all governments.

Pasztor acknowledged that political differences remained but said that all parties at Bonn had agreed that there should be no backsliding.

In total, 37 countries representing 31.1 percent of global emissions have so far submitted their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) -- publicly outlining what post- 2020 climate actions they intend to take -- also in preparation for COP21.

Pasztor reiterated that climate action needs to be swift. " Climate action now can limit climate change, but if we wait it will be increasingly difficult and more expensive," he said.

"We need to remind ourselves that the business as usual scenario is showing us that we are on a 4 degree path or more and we need to bring it down to a less than 2 degree path."

Two degrees Celsius is the temperature that governments have agreed to limit global temperature increases to in order to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Endite