'Paris agreement unstoppable, Trump will change mind'

Marrakech, Nov 15: United tions Secretary General Ban ki-Moon on Tuesday said he is confident that US President-elect Dold Trump would distance himself from his election rhetoric against the Paris Climate Change Agreement, saying “now it has become unstoppable”. “As you may know, last week I spoke to President-elect, Mr. Trump and I brought up many issues, peace and security issues, including the issue of climate change. I remain very optimistic about our effort to combat climate change,” Ban told reporters here. Terming it historic, he said the Paris agreement, now ratified by 109 countries, has come into force in record time.

“Never in the history of the United tions, any convention, agreement or treaty has entered into force in such a short period of time. And it also has the highest number of member statesaso it has established a lot of records, in fact.

“The global unity around climate change once seemed to be unthinkable but now it has become unstoppable,” said an optimistic Secretary General, who is going to demit office in just one-and a-half months after a 10-year-long tenure.

“I am too much optimistic about the Paris agreement continuation,” Ban told this IANS correspondent to a query on the sidelines of the media briefings.

The global business community is now fully on board and moving forward to decarbonise and lessen their carbon footprint, said Ban, who is here attend the high-level segment of the 22nd Conference of Parties (COP22) conference - his last UN climate conference as Secretary General.

According to him, every member of the United tions has signed on to the Paris agreement. “Delegations were not forced to sign. They signed on because they believe that it’s in the interest of their own country, and it’s in the interest of the whole world and planet Earth.” He said now the Paris agreement has come into force and that he would discuss the impact of climate change with Trump more in detail persolly. (IANS)