World leaders must "look beyond national horizons" to secure a "meaningful climate agreement" at U.N. talks in Paris next week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Thursday.
  

More than 120 heads of state and government, including South Korean President Park Geun-hye and U.S. President Barack Obama, will attend the climate conference with the hope of producing concrete steps against global warming.
  

"A meaningful climate agreement in Paris will build a better today and tomorrow," Ban said in his op-ed piece published by the state-run China Daily newspaper.
  

"My message to world leaders is clear: Success in Paris depends on you," Ban said.
  

"It is time to look beyond national horizons and to put the common interest first. The people of the world -- and generations to come -- count on you to have the vision and courage to seize this historic moment," the U.N. chief said.
  

A key goal of next week's climate summit is to produce a deal that can keep the rise in global temperatures below 2 degrees Celsius.
  

Ban said, "Paris must provide a long-term vision consistent with a below 2 degrees trajectory and send a clear signal to markets that the low-carbon transformation of the global economy is inevitable, beneficial and already under way." 
  

During a summit with Obama in Beijing last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to cap the world's biggest polluter's emissions by around 2030.
  

Xi will also attend the Paris climate summit, and Chinese officials suggested that Beijing would not put forward new concessions for a deal. (Yonhap)