On 13 June 2015, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres delivered the Commencement Address to the University of California San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies Class of 2015 in La Jolla, California. In her speech, she said:

You will write the social contract of this century. Contrary to the previous contracts, it will have to address global concerns just as much, or even more so, than national and local concerns. It will have to be a contract enriched by the integration of North and South, East and West, and deeply informed by the interaction between global challenges and national concerns. It will have to be a contract based more on collaboration than on competition. It will have to be a contract guided by the stars of solidarity and equality.

Through your decisions you will also determine the design of the impressive infrastructure of the twenty-first century, infrastructure that is almost unimaginable to us today. It will be built to transform the way we house, feed, employ and transport nine billion people despite growing climate uncertainties.

Read the full speech here.

Photo by Flickr user Olasis