World leaders gather for U.N. climate conference in Paris

Byby Elissa Harrington KGO logo
Monday, November 30, 2015
World leaders gather for U.N. climate conference in Paris
World leaders gathered in Paris Monday for a summit on climate change and some of Silicon Valley's top players took part.

PARIS (KGO) -- World leaders gathered in Paris Monday for a summit on climate change and some of Silicon Valley's top players took part.

World leaders from 150 countries came together for to the U.N. climate conference.

The goal is to reach a global agreement to change the path we're going down now. Officials want to work on lowering carbon emissions and slow global warming. "A world that's safer and more prosperous, and more secure, and more free than the one that we inherited," President Barack Obama said.

Familiar faces represented the Bay Area at the summit, such as Richmond Mayor Tom Butt.

The mayor spoke with ABC7 News before flying out last week. "We are going to have to cut down on fossil fuels dramatically, but it's not going to happen overnight," Butt said.

Bill Gates is forming a new fund to support green energy technology. Among the backers is Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and UC Berkeley is investing at least $1 billion.

The summit is happening in Paris, a city in mourning from recent terror attacks. O