Macron wants to increase pressure on US, China – EURACTIV.com

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to put pressure on rich countries outside the European Union to help poorer countries, particularly those affected by the effects of climate change. In particular, the United States is currently not contributing financially.

Speaking to activists at the start of the COP27 summit in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh, Macron said he wanted to put pressure on rich countries outside Europe to ‘pay your part’. In particular, “China and the US must do more,” he added.

“Europeans pay” but “only we pay,” the president said, noting the importance of “climate justice” as poor or developing countries suffer the most from the effects of global warming.

“We are [afrikanische Länder] bear the costs of developing green projects in debt-ridden Africa; This is unacceptable,” said Senegalese President Macky Sall franceinfo. “We need international solidarity,” he added.

Sall, along with other African leaders, lamented the failure to meet the pledge made at COP15 in Copenhagen in 2009 to pay $100 billion annually in support of climate action from 2020. situation.

Macron called for an “innovative climate fund” to be created by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the OECD – which he says could be launched by spring 2023. This was also endorsed by the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley.

The instrument would help mobilize extraordinary public and private resources by changing the rules of major financial institutions to take into account the situation in which a borrowing state finds itself in the event of a “climate shock”.

But according to environmental groups, “France is abdicating short-term responsibility for the communities most affected by climate change,” said Aurore Mathieu, international policy officer at the Climate Action Network, a climate protection organization.

The IMF, the World Bank and the OECD “have not responded in any way to the urgency and must now provide a financial response to the most vulnerable communities”, and Macron should step up his efforts, Mathieu said.

In other words, it costs money to avoid using coal. “If there is no money,” Senegal’s Saal pointed out, the African continent will be forced to resort to coal, “which is currently the case in most developed countries.”

The African Union defended this position again in early October, threatening to rely more on fossil fuel investments to attract funding from rich countries.

On the occasion of the Climate Conference, Elysee-Balast said “coal emissions are the mother of all wars”.

“Beyond Financial Goals […] What matters are the projects we implement on the ground and the practical approach we can develop to really make a difference,” the French presidential palace added.

So, as in Glasgow in 2021, Macron promises that “France will invest 1 billion euros to phase out South Africa’s coal through renewable energy, nuclear power and energy storage.”

“With Indonesia, India and Senegal,” such efforts “must be intensified,” he added.

“Energy transition is possible and will be achieved through this joint strategy with emerging economies,” he added.