23 September 2010: Delivering a statement at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York, US, on 23 September 2010, Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary, described Cancun as “the place where governments need to take the next firm step on humanity’s long journey to meet the full scale challenge of climate change.”

Commenting on the next negotiating session, which is scheduled to take place in Tianjin, China, from 4-9 October 2010, she also called on governments to cut down the number of options and identify what is achievable in Cancun, Mexico, the venue of the 16th session of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC (COP 16). She added that governments should “muster political compromises that will deliver what needs to be done at Cancun.”

Figueres listed four major trends shaping the future, namely: energy supply and security; natural resource depletion; population growth; and climate change. She described unchecked climate change as “the flame that would make the other three burn most seriously,” noting, however, the possibility of turning the threats into a new development paradigm that harnesses the full power of society, science and business. Figueres concluded by cautioning that it would be naive to expect a magic bullet in the form of a climate agreement that could solve everything right now. [The Statement]