Today, on December 12th, 2020, we are commemorating the 5th year anniversary of the Paris Climate Agreement and the leaders who worked vigorously to bring it to life. In 2007, when Ban Ki-moon first assumed his position as the 8th Secretary-General of the United Nations, he positioned global action on climate change as a guiding priority of his mandate. He remembers how many people were surprised by this, “but immediately raising this issue of critical significance was necessary to set the tone for my leadership and policy priorities from the outset.”
During his tenure as Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon hosted five major climate change summits and worked tirelessly to place climate action as a priority for national governments. Being the first Secretary-General to attend all the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCCC) sessions, he reflects on COP15 (the 15th Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC) “…even though there was no binding agreement, a “political accord” drafted by US, China, India, South Africa, and Brazil was issued. This document would serve as the basis for continuing the COPs until the 2015 Paris Agreement.”
Working up to COP21 in Paris, Ban Ki-moon went on several on-the-ground visits around the world to see the immense impact caused by climate change on communities, countries, and the planet’s entirety. He recalls, “…these travels reinforced my belief that climate change represented humankind’s biggest challenge.”
