Hollande said that in the coming years France would invest billions of euros in African renewable energy projects.
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“Given that we’re already locked into climate change trajectories for many years to come, increased investment in adaptation has to be at the core of the new climate agreement”, said Naoko Ishii, the head of the Global Environmental Facility which administers the fund, said in a release.
In his meeting with Xi, Obama said nowhere had coordination with Beijing been more critical or fruitful than on climate change.
Of that, one third is to help the continent develop renewable energy.
Hollande spoke the day after more than 150 world leaders gathered for the start of the 12-day meeting, tasked with beating back the threat of global warming and helping poor countries cope with its impacts.
LE BOURGET – France will give African countries €2bn over the next four years to develop renewable energy and replace the fossil fuels that drive global warming, President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday.
Later Tuesday, President Barack Obama was meeting in Paris with envoys from island nations hit hard by rising seas and increasingly violent storms, which scientists attribute to climate change prompted by man-made carbon emissions.
Work for the COP21 summit began to get under way on Sunday, with Laurent Fabius, French foreign minister, laying out a road map for negotiations before the official opening.
The U.S. contribution joins pledges from Germany, Canada, Italy and others to total $248 million.
Developing countries say they need financial support and technology to relocate threatened populations and make their own transition to cleaner energy. Obama has struggled to convince the Republican-run Congress to fund his climate goals, amid concerns from critics in the United States who say his energy plan is unattainable and could be wiped away by his successor. That treaty required only rich countries to cut their emissions, while this time the goal is for everyone to pitch in.
One of the proposals involves saving the world’s forests, which absorb carbon dioxide released by burning oil, gas and coal.
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Trudeau, who is wrapping his second major worldwide summit tour in three weeks, said security and climate change have figured in every conversation he’s had with other world leaders, but added, “I don’t see a direct link there”.
