Hollande demands strong global deal at Paris Climate Week
French President called on world leaders to finalise a strong global deal to cut GHG emissions in the build up the crucial COP21 summit
French President François Hollande called on world leaders to finalise a strong global deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the build up the crucial COP21 U.N. climate change conference in Paris in December.
Hollande was speaking at the Business & Climate Summit in the French capital on Tuesday as part of Paris Climate Week.
“We must have a consensus. If within our own country, that’s difficult, imagine what it’s like with 196 countries. A miracle!”
Elder Saetre, chief executive of Statoil, also addressed the summit and called for an effective carbon pricing system to be implemented.
The Secretary-General of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Angel Gurria, said that government pledges on carbon emissions reduction so far are not sufficient to limit the global average temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned would cause catastrophic climate change.
Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel confirmed their commitment to combating global warming on Tuesday at a meeting in Berlin to prepare for the COP21 summit.
In a joint statement Merkel and Hollande said that Germany and France "are committed to the goal of limiting global temperature increases at least to below 2°C compared with pre-industrial levels [and] are firmly decided to take all efforts to reach an ambitious, comprehensive and binding U.N. climate agreement by the end of this year in Paris."