No Planet B: Ten years of climate leadership

When Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was preparing for his first term in office, he asked his transition team to brief him on key issues that were global in nature, requiring urgent response and that would benefit from the sort of leadership his office could provide. Climate change was at the top of that list. Very quickly, the new Secretary-General was able to see the salience of this issue as a fundamental question for his tenure. The world needed to be mobilized and made aware of the existential threat posed to humankind by the accelerating change in the Earth’s climate caused largely by human activity. Together with those with whom he worked closely, Ban Ki-moon resolved to elevate climate change to a leaders-level issue, to mobilize the world to confront it frontally and, in the process, to help achieve a truly global climate change agreement.