The president was one of the guests who gave a speech at the COP21 conference to outline his vision of the future of the planet. The summit saw 147 speakers from a number of nations. Each guest was given a 3 minute slot to put across their ideas.
The president however surpassed his time allotment and continued talking even after 8 minutes. Although organizers “beeped” the president every 30 seconds to wrap it up, he continued talking.
He said “I’ve come here personally, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and the second-largest emitter, to say that the United States of America not only recognizes our responsibility in creating this problem, we embrace our responsibility to do something about it,” he told the summit. He also spoke about the sea levels that are on a rise.
“One of the enemies that we’ll be fighting at this conference is cynicism, the notion we can’t do anything about climate change,” he continued. He went on to explain that he wanted talks to work towards “a world that is worthy of our children”. He then proceeded to pay tribute to the victims of the Paris attacks.
The President ended his speech just short of 14 minutes. After the 11 minute mark the organizers did not to interrupt the President. Organizers remained tight lipped about the high pitched beeps when approached by a popular news station.
Later it was noted that the president did not speak longer than what was prepared for him by the White House. The remarks released by the White House was more than 1,700 words.