US President Obama calls for carbon cuts

Barack Obama said Monday that world leaders at an upcoming UN summit must agree to cut carbon emissions because the climate is changing faster than efforts to curb global warming.

"The science is stark, it is sharpening, and it proves that this once-distant threat is now very much in the present," Obama said, according to prepared remarks released in advance of his speech during a three-day visit to Alaska. "We are not acting fast enough" on climate, the president warned.

His remarks were directed at foreign ministers from eight Arctic countries meeting for a conference in the US state of Alaska. He said concrete action will be necessary during a UN climate summit slated for December.

Addressing the glacier conference, Obama said the "urgent and growing" threat of climate change "will define the contours of this century more dramatically than any other."

"This year, in Paris, must be the year that the world finally reaches an agreement to protect the one planet we've got while we still can," Obama is expected to say in his address.

The Arctic is already feeling the effects of climate change, Obama said, noting Alaska had "some of the swiftest shoreline erosion rates in the world," which threaten coastal villages.

The US president faces criticism from environmentalists and lawmakers in his own party for his administration's recent decision to allow Shell to resume offshore oil drilling in the Arctic.

jar/jm (AFP, Reuters)