Paris climate talks a test of global resolve: Obama

President Barack Obama told world leaders that the climate talks that opened Monday in Paris mark a turning point for collective action on global warming and stand as a rejection of the terrorists who struck the French capital a little more than two weeks ago. The threat posed by climate change is the defining challenge of the century, Obama told the United Nations-sponsored summit organised to reach the first truly global agreement to curb greenhouse gases. Linking the meeting to the battle against extremism, Obama said that bringing world leaders to Paris for the conference "is an act of defiance that proves nothing will deter us from building the future we want for our children."

"Here in Paris we can show the world what is possible when we come together, united by a common effort and a common purpose," Obama said.

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The president told the assembled dignitaries that no nation was immune from the effects of climate change. He said the U.S., the world's biggest economy and its second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, accepted its role for contributing to the problem and shares the responsibility to fix it.