UN General Assembly
2009

Copenhagen, if we miss this great opportunity to agree together to protect our planet, we cannot hope for an easy second chance some time in the future. There will be no retrospective global agreement to undo the 09-52179 52 damage that we have caused. This is the moment now to limit and reverse the climate change we are inflicting on future generations — not later, not at another conference, not in a later decade, after we have already lost 10 years to inaction and delay. And if, in Afghanistan, we give way to the insurgency and Al-Qaida , other terrorist groups and Al-Qaida will return and, from that sanctuary once again plot, train for and launch attacks on the rest of the world. There can be no chance, either, of a nuclear-free world if we allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons and, in doing so, set off a new arms race. There can be no global compact for jobs and growth if we choke off recovery by failing to act together to follow through on the coordinated global