Carmona for Paris climate summit

Tens of thousands yesterday marched around the world — including in Portof- Spain, Sydney, Seattle, Hong Kong, Berlin, London and Sao Paulo — to call for decisive action on climate change ahead of the conference which begins today and ends on December 11.

According to a preliminary list of speakers, Carmona is due to speak at the sleekly-designed conference centre at Le Bourget, a few miles from the Paris city centre where terrorists struck earlier this month.

Security has been significantly enhanced.

The President is scheduled to speak just after 10am (3pm Paris time).

Also on the list of speakers are: the US President Barack Obama, China’s President Xi Jinping, UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro, Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff, Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, and cardinal Pietro Parolin, secretary of state of the Holy See.

Caribbean leaders due to speak include: Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Timothy Harris, Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne, Bahamas Prime Minister Perry Christie, Grenada Prime Minister Keith Mitchell, St Lucia Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, and Haiti’s President Michel Martelly.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley is not due to attend this summit.

He attended the Commonwe a l th Heads of Government Meeting at Malta (which closed yesterday) and is due to meet with oil and gas companies — BP, BG, Shell at London over two days starting from tomorrow.

He is due to return to Trinidad on Thursday.

The Paris summit will see discussion on plans by the United Nations (UN) to arrest increasingly intense weather conditions.

The UN wants to limit the increase of the average global surface temperature to no more than two degrees, in a bid to avoid “dangerous” climate change.

But scientists warn the Earth is on track for double that target.

Fourteen out of the 15 hottest years have been this century.

Due to the number of leaders attending the summit, special measures have been taken.