Nations must accelerate climate change commitments: Macron

By Shweta Desai

PARIS (AA) - All countries must come together to engage in the fight to reduce methane emissions and accelerate the implementation of the commitments by 2030, French President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.

Speaking at the global climate summit organized by the US, Macron welcomed the US decision to cut its greenhouse gas emissions at least in half by 2030, calling it a “historic decision on the road to Glasgow.”

The 26th UN Climate Change Conference will take place in November this year at the Scottish Event Campus in Glasgow, Scotland.

He said last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Chinese President Xi Jinping also committed in this direction. There is a single goal in the coming weeks and months to implement the commitments that are precisely measurable and verifiable by 2030, he said, adding “fundamentally, 2030 is the new 2050.”

Macron said this was also the plan of the European Green Deal, and to meet the challenge, reducing costs of technology and innovation like in the case of solar batteries and transforming the financial system was imperative.

“France will take all its responsibilities in the coming months to go further on the subject of this finance in the service of the climate,” he said.

He also stressed the need to integrate the environmental dimension into the costs of investments in trade relationships.

“There will be no credible and sustainable environmental action if there is no social and climate justice to succeed collectively.”

Climate justice is at the core of its partnership with India in the International Solar Alliance and the upcoming Paris summit on May 18 on the sustainable financing of African economies, he said. He added that it is now up to countries to set a “stronger mandate for the public banks to finally implement carbon neutrality if we want to succeed.”

The streamed summit, attended by over 40 world leaders, faced several technical glitches. Macron’s 3.50-minute speech was interrupted twice at the start as the video briefly overlapped with Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s appearance and shortly again as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken cut him short to pass the microphone to Russian President Vladimir Putin.