“We must take action. We have spoken for a long time - at least 20 years, longer than 20 years – and the science has made it plainly clear,” he said at a news conference on the margins of the Commonwealth summit in Malta, on the eve of the two-week-long UN climate change conference, widely known as COP21, opening in Paris on Monday.

“Now I hope this will [also] be the last place to talk about this and I hope we have a good and ambitious agreement in Paris,” he stressed, citing the years of effort to rein in greenhouse gas emissions that threaten to radically impact the world as we know it, from rising sea levels overwhelming low-lying island States to devastating droughts and floods.

Five years ago at a climate change summit in Durban, South Africa, Member States agreed in their Declaration: let us agree on a universal, legally binding, ambitious climate change agreement by 2015, Ban stressed.

He added, “I think that [now] all the stars seem to be aligning. There is a strong commitment, not only from the Government but from the business communities and civil society."

“And people on the ground, urge the leaders of today to make this world better and environmentally sustainable so that our succeeding generations can live in peace and harmony and prosperity, in a safer way,” he added.

“We are going to make it happen and the time for taking action is now. We cannot again delay or postpone it until tomorrow.”

UN Photo/Rick Bajornas