UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday urged the world’s nations to “take climate action to the next level,” two weeks after 175 governments signed the historic Paris Agreement on climate change in New York.

“We need action now,” Ban said at the opening of the Climate Action 2016 summit in Washington D.C., a two-day meeting seeking to accelerate global action on climate change.

“Temperatures continue to climb. Arctic sea ice is melting fast. Droughts, storms and floods are costing lives and productivity,” he said.