COP21 Paris

Economists at Barclays estimate that greenhouse gas pledges made by the US, the EU, China, India, and others for the COP-21 climate summit amount to an epic change in the allocation of capital and resources, with financial winners and losers to match.

And their leaders know that they have already delivered an almost universal set of national responses to meet the long-term climate challenge before the conference even begins.

President of Kiribati, Anote Tong leads the batting order when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Conference starts on Monday.

He is speaker number 13 in a line-up of speakers that has American President Barack Obama as speaker number 3 and Russian leader Vladimir Putin as the 9th speaker.

The government of New Caledonia organised a side event in downtown Paris Wednesday on mobilising knowledge for better governance of climate change impacts, which featured high level speakers from the region including Papua New Guinea’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Rimbink Pato, Australia’s Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Steven Ciobo, France’s deputy special representative for COP21, Philippe Lacoste and New Caledonia’s president, Philippe Germain.