U.N. Climate Conference Opens With Call for Unity

Some 100 heads of state gathered at the United Nations on Tuesday for an unprecedented daylong conference on combating climate change, which President Obama and other leaders acknowledged was a difficult issue to agree on but is crucial for the future health of the planet.

The world “cannot allow the old divisions that have characterized the climate debate for so many years to block our progress,” Mr. Obama told the leaders gathered at the General Assembly hall, acknowledging that forging any kind of consensus will come slowly.

“It is a journey that will require each of us to persevere through setback, and fight for every inch of progress, even when it comes in fits and starts,” he said. He said the world had been too slow to recognize the gathering danger from rising temperatures. “It is true of my own country as well; we recognize that.”

Negotiators trying to hammer out a deal to cut global emissions by December in Copenhagen have largely stalled, and the United Nations organizers are hoping that gathering the leaders will give the talks new political momentum.

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