US president salutes French people for going ahead with crucial climate talks in his address to heads of state on first day of the conference. Barack Obama has told crucial UN climate talks in Paris that the negotiations represent an act of defiance after the barbaric attacks in the city two weeks ago in which 130 people were killed. Offering his condolences to the people of "this beautiful city" the US president said, "We salute the people of Paris for insisting this crucial conference go on ... What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshalling our best efforts to save it." More than 130 heads of state and government are attending the first day of the two-week talks, instructing their negotiating teams on coming to a deal. Each leader has been allotted three minutes for a short speech. The Paris talks are seen as a last chance for coordinated global action on climate change under the UN. If these talks fail to produce an agreement, the world will be left without an international commitment to prevent dangerous levels of global warming. Obama said that the science now pointed clearly to the need for countries to act. "Our understanding of the ways human beings disrupt the climate advances by the day," he said, pointing out that 2015 was on course to be the warmest year on record. He said he was attending personally because the US embraces its, "responsibility to do something about it."
