US Energy Chief Urges COP21 Negotiators to Focus on Precise Climate Actions

US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz said that any differences that have emerged during the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) are surmountable.

PARIS (Sputnik), Daria Chernyshova – Any differences that have emerged during the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris (COP21) are surmountable, and the states should concentrate instead on their practical climate actions, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz told Sputnik on Tuesday.

"I think they [differences] can be overcome, I think that is what the negotiators are doing and the key now is building on the INDCs [ Intended Nationally Determined Contributions] what will they accomplish in terms of verification,…in terms of the view of targets, what will they accomplish in terms of the financial requirements, in terms of helping the least developed countries both adapt [to] and mitigate the [effects of] climate change," Moniz said on the sidelines of the Paris Climate Conference.

From November 30 to December 11, France is hosting and chairing COP21. The event is expected to result in the signing of a global agreement on climate change, introducing a legally binding and universal strategy on the issue, which is due to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

In advance of the conference, each country submitted an outline of the climate actions they intend to take under a new international agreement, known as INDCs.