TheUN Climate Summit in New York marked a high point in political mobilisation for climate, with over 120 countries represented at the highest level. The summit should lead to the adoption of a universal climate agreement in December 2015, but already appears to be a success in terms of initiatives in key areas of reducing greenhouse gas emissions: finance, green cities, energy, forestry, transport and agriculture. In this perspective, France is leading the fight against global warming by taking concerted international action and expresses to Kazakhstan its grateful thanks for its fruitful cooperation in that field.
In the urgency of a response to the negative consequences of global warming that we see on the horizon by the end of the century, France would foster dialogue and strengthen international cooperation in this field. Paris calls for a significant reduction in carbon emissions in order to achieve the objective of 2°C, which means reaching climate neutrality, a compatible level of emissions with the absorption capacity of the planet.
France also demonstrates its commitment by the voluntary national targets it puts forward such as those proposed to its European partners, the Energy Transition Act and an EU target requiring emission reductions up to 40 percent in 2030 compared to the 1990 levels.
Following the success of thesummit in NewYork, France intends to gather and call for a large mobilisation of the international community to adopt in Paris a universal agreement on climate. To this end, France stresses and promotes the implementation of instruments and policies towards low-carbon economies.
France wants to commit a strong impetus to the movement against global warming by its ambitious financial contribution of $1 billion over four years to the Green Climate Fund at the meeting on Nov. 19 and 20 in Berlin.
Before the next French round in 2015, Paris encourages the Peruvian presidency of the Conference of Parties on Climate to channel the energies set in motion during the summit. Up until now, it has been up to Lima to complete three objectives for the 2015climate convention: strengthen the ambition of each member, develop the confidence of all in the commitment to reduce emissions and enhance the multilateral approach complemented by civil society initiatives.
The French government urges its partners to support the dynamic it wants to instill and invites emitting countries to embrace a common approach towards environmental protection. Industrialised countries that are also great democracies cannot ignore the importance of these issues. Polluting countries have a duty to report and tackle the challenges facing the entire international community.
In this area as elsewhere, France relies on Kazakhstan as a strategic partner in Central Asia. Repeatedly, France and Kazakhstan have proven the strength of their cooperation and the intensity of their exchanges.The environment promises to be the major project of the 21st Century in which Kazakhstan will play a leading role and to which it has already committed, as will be demonstrated at EXPO 2017 in Astana. France reiterates its confidence and support for its Kazakhstan partner in the ongoing environmental efforts to lead, with a common goal of preserving our planet.
The author is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of France to Kazakhstan.
