We're not acting fast enough on global warming: Barack Obama in Alaska

Alaska: Addressing a Arctic climate change conference in Alaska, Barack Obama made an urgent plea to the world to identify the dangers of global warming.

The speech, which comes at the beginning of a historic three-day visit to the Alaskan Arctic, was clearly aimed at trying to build momentum toward pivotal global climate talks in Paris in early December.

The US President said that climate change will shape this century like no other threat, and stressed that it's a problem of now, not the future.

“The fact is that climate is changing faster than our efforts to address it," Obama said. "That, ladies and gentleman, must change. We are not acting fast enough.”

Obama also told that the United States recognized it played a big part in raising the Earth`s temperatures and "embraces our responsibility" to help fix the problem.

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.

Forest fires are accelerating the thaw in permafrost, which threatens homes and damages roads in the state and also releases carbon stored in the land, which contributes to the problem, he said.

"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 said.

(With Agency inputs)