The first day of the U.N. Climate Summit in Paris on Monday offered an excellent opportunity for world leaders to meet. Each one of the 150 state leaders was given three minutes to speak about how committed their country is to fighting global warming. Everyone sounded convincing. Three minutes is a short enough time slot to keep speakers on topic. It's not every day that world leaders meet, and it is not every day that they all take a photo together as a memento. For newly elected leaders, like Canada's young prime minister, Justin Trudeau, this was a wonderful opportunity to learn about the family to which he now belongs. Seasoned leaders spoke about times past, when the world was a colder place. The first day of the climate summit was an especially good opportunity to get a sense of the top priorities for world leaders today. Though on the podium, everyone spoke about preserving the environment and fighting global warming, on the sidelines and in the hallways, the topic of the hour was terrorism and the war against the Islamic State group. The moment of silence in memory of the 130 victims of the Paris attacks impacted the agenda set for the conference. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Paris on Monday to take part in the summit. For him, it was an opportunity not only to show the world that the environment is an important issue for us as well, but also to meet with leaders he knows (U.S. President Barack Obama, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Francois Hollande) and with those who are new to him (Canada's Trudeau). The number of leaders who warmly shook Netanyahu's hand shows that Israel is not in fact isolated, as the media works so hard to convince us. Even those awaiting peace talks were treated to a rare handshake between Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, something that hasn't happened in five years. It's a shame that the handshake was blocked from the camera's view by Comoros President Ikililou Dhoinine, whose country belongs to the Arab League. Obama, who has always seen global warming as the world's most important problem (much more so than a nuclear Iran), praised Paris for maintaining its commitment to hold the conference despite the threat of terrorism. As usual at events like Monday's, hopes ran high. On Monday, everyone agreed to agree. The real question is, what will happen in the days to come? It seems as though the climate talks in Paris represent the last chance for the world's states to coordinate a joint struggle against global warming. If the Paris climate conference, held at a time of solidarity after the terrorist attacks, does not bring about the desired results, each country will likely return to its independent climate predictions, rather than follow a single global forecaster. Obama's speech sought to draw parallels between the threat of terrorism and the threat of climate change. "What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshaling our best efforts to save it," he asked, recognizing his country's responsibility as the world's "second-largest emitter." But after the nice -- and short -- speeches, disagreements quickly surfaced. Disagreement, for example, between the leaders of the United States and France, who wanted to sign an accord to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases, and the leaders of countries such as India and China, who feel it's unfair that the wealthy countries get to determine the pace of such decisions after they have already profited from the pollution. Putin's body language and coldness toward the United States (following the American response to last week's downing of a Russian plane by Turkey) show that in the war on terror, just as in the war on climate change, we are far from reaching a consensus. It's still not clear if we can expect an agreement to come out of the climate conference, but we can take comfort in the fact that there is a photo of all the leaders together. As our world heats up, that too is an accomplishment.
