Janos Pasztor was appointed in January as UN Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change with the task of shepherding a global deal on climate change in Paris at the end of the year.

In an interview with FRANCE 24's Marc Perelman, Janos Pasztor says he is optimistic about a legally binding deal that would cut carbon emissions: "There is a strong willingness to come to an agreement", he says. The objective is to limit warming to below 2° Celsius, the threshold for dangerous climate change according to scientists. Countries were supposed to submit their Intended National Determined Contributions (INDCs) by the end of March. While 33 countries have committed to specific goals, some of the biggest carbon polluters, such as Brazil, India, China and Japan, have failed to meet the deadline. According to Janos Pasztnor, however, “it is not alarming because we know they are working on these commitments”, he explains.
Despite the countries’ apparent willingness to reach a deal at the Paris summit in December 2015, some experts think these pledges will not be enough. Janos Pasztor agrees and points out that “it is very likely that the commitments we will get from countries will not be sufficient” to meet UN’s 2°C target. That’s why he advocates “a very strong mechanism of review and monitoring to make sure we can continually look at these commitments, evaluate them and ratchet them up”.

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