A virtual summit opens on Saturday, five years after the Paris climate agreement.

Objective: to take stock of the promises of 2015 and commit to new measures.

So what can we concretely expect from our political leaders?

Europe 1 takes stock.

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We remember the commitment made in Paris 5 years ago at the time of COP21: to keep global warming below + 2 ° C.

But the UN recently denounced "policies which are not up to the challenge".

So what should we expect from the virtual summit which is being held this Saturday between many states, in which Emmanuel Macron participates in particular?

Can we still expect strong actions from political leaders? 

More than 70 countries could indeed make announcements of additional efforts on reducing greenhouse gases by 2030 or 2050. The strongest announcement was probably already made on Friday by the countries of the European Union, which are committed to reducing their CO2 emissions by 55% over the next ten years.

So far, the target was 40%.

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"Ambivalent" positions

A promise that allows Europe and France to consolidate their place as leader in climate diplomacy.

Even if there are in fact not really good students to learn from, explains Damien Navizet, of the French Development Agency.

"Take the case of Norway. They are champions in the forest. But it is still a country that produces oil. It is still often countries which are either ambivalent, a bit like Norway, or which do not. 'do not really have significant weight at the international level. So, the type of champions that we would like to see but that we do not necessarily have, would be States which would have both a great international influence and which would be irreproachable on their actions. "

This is not really the case with France either: Emmanuel Macron's "make our planet great again", when Donald Trump left the Paris Agreement, made him a figure for the climate in France. international, but this is less the case in France.

The president is expected to announce new initiatives by France to fight global warming on Saturday, but everyone is actually waiting for his meeting on Monday with the members of the Citizen's Climate Convention, many of whom believe that the president did not keep his promises. 

Read also

: Paris Agreement: five years later, where is France? 

"I have the faith of the new converts", he confided a few months ago to Europe 1. The Head of State assumes to have realized belatedly that there was an urgent need to react on the climate even if, since his election, he has tried to take the fold.

The NGOs and the opposition denounce his supposed inaction.

His initiatives against glyphosate in Europe have turned against him in the National Assembly.

The closures of coal-fired power stations, the end of Fessenheim, EuropaCity or Notre-Dame-des-Landes, the law on the circular economy, do not weigh much in the face of the suspicions created by the shattering departure of Nicolas Hulot.

Meanwhile, the president continues to blow hot and cold, committing to the citizens' convention, but denouncing on the other hand the environmentalists "Amish".

No announcements from the United States before 2021

Finally, on the side of the United States, no announcement to wait before early 2021. Joe Biden has promised to convene a world summit on climate in the first 100 days of his mandate.

The young Swedish activist Greta Thunberg spoke in a video Friday, just before the virtual summit which is to bring together dozens of heads of state and government.

According to her, hope rests more on the people than on the leaders who have not moved much, according to her, since the COP 21.