President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Saturday at the “climate ambition summit” organized virtually by the UN, France and the United Kingdom.
While the UN secretary general has called on the world to "declare a climate emergency", Europe 1 takes stock of what the French president said.
It was in a climate of climate emergency that the "climate ambition summit" took place on Saturday, organized virtually by the UN, France and Great Britain.
Five years after the Paris Agreement, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called on the world to "declare a state of climate emergency".
For more than three hours, heads of state indicated what they intended to do concretely to combat climate change.
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"The action must be immediate, we know that"
For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron first highlighted the challenges that still need to be overcome to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement.
"We do not have a lot of time in front of us and the action must be immediate. We know it", insisted the Head of State.
Emmanuel Macron also welcomed the announced return of the United States in this agreement, which was promised by President-elect Joe Biden.
“
Welcome back, welcome home
to our American friends,” declared the President of the Republic.
"We continued to move forward, to work despite the American choice," he said, referring to the withdrawal from the United States decided by Donald Trump, and "we have held on".
The Head of State also insisted on the need to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, recalling the agreement reached two days ago within the European Union.
"We have decided to act on this transition by taking all together, at 27, the commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 and to all commit to this 2050 objective".
Emmanuel Macron quotes the future law resulting from the Citizen's Convention on the climate
Emmanuel Macron also highlighted the need to improve the financial transparency of companies concerning the climate.
Just before the summit, he announced that all French CAC 40 companies were going to commit to this.
While on the left the criticisms are fired on the climate balance sheet of France and the mandate of Emmanuel Macron, the president defended his action, citing in particular the future law resulting from the work of the Citizen's Convention on the climate.
Emmanuel Macron is due to meet his members on Monday in an increasingly tense context.
A reduction in greenhouse gas emissions "too slow and insufficient"
Last July, scientists from the High Council for the Climate (HCC), responsible for evaluating government policy, deplored a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions "too slow and insufficient" compared to the objectives.
On the associative side, the Climate Action Network estimated in a press release that Emmanuel Macron "(had) praised the progress of climate action since the adoption of the Paris Agreement" but "eluded a much less glorious reality: so much in terms of national and international action, France does not honor the legacy of COP21 ".