Obama raises global warming issues in Alaska and pleads for Paris climate change deal

US President Barack Obama has appealed for a global deal in his latest push for action on climate change. Obama has made the fight against climate change one of the pillars of his second term, as he recently outlined plans to cut US carbon dioxide emissions by almost a third over the next 15 years.

The president, who spoke from Anchorage, Alaska, where he is on a three-day tour, commended participants at the Glacier conference to step up efforts to curb climate change to limit the impact worldwide, saying leaders were not doing enough to stop global warming.

"Climate change is no longer some far-off problem," he said. "Climate change is already disrupting our agriculture and ecosystems, our water and food supplies, our energy and infrastructure."

The president will also call on world leaders to agree to cut carbon dioxide emissions at pivotal talks in Paris in December, where the meeting will seek a deal to limit the rise in global temperatures to 2°C

"This year in Paris has to be the year that the world finally reaches an agreement to protect the one planet that we've got while we still can," he told the meeting of foreign ministers.

"This is within our power. This is a solvable problem – if we start now. We are starting to see that enough consensus is being built internationally and within each of our own body politics that we may have the political will to get moving."

Obama's Alaska trip is designed to strengthen the domestic political case for new power station regulations, but his speech was welcomed by environmental demonstrations.

Protesters have criticised his support for offshore oil drilling in Alaska.

At the United Nations Climate Change Conference Paris summit in December 2015, 196 countries will meet to sign a new climate change agreement – six years after the 2009 chaotic Copenhagen negotiations.