Climate change - France urges Paris Agreement signatories to redouble efforts [fr]

Paris, 8 October 2018

We welcome the publication today of the special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) devoted both to the impacts of global warming of 1.5ºC compared to 2ºC and to the greenhouse gas emission pathways to be followed to limit warming to 1.5ºC in the more general framework of sustainable development and poverty eradication. This document, which was requested by COP21 at the same time as the Paris Agreement was adopted, documents the climate emergency on the basis of more than 6,000 scientific studies and sets a new benchmark.

The report makes an unequivocal observation. It confirms that the world’s climate has already warmed by an average of around 1ºC compared to the pre-industrial era and describes in detail the consequences of global warming of 1.5ºC: the worsening and intensification of extreme climate events, rising sea levels, ice melt, increasingly scarce water resources, reduced agricultural production, growing threats to land and marine biodiversity, damage to health, economic losses and increasing poverty.

However, the IPCC believes it still possible to restrict this temperature rise to 1.5ºC and limit the damage to mankind and its environment, subject to resolute public policies and correctly channeled investment. The report stresses that every option for not exceeding a 1.5ºC increase requires major transformations in every sector of society and all over the world, and that it is essential to implement them swiftly.

France has shouldered its responsibilities by setting itself the ambitious target of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The report’s conclusions encourage our country to continue its efforts: developing clean transport, gradually moving away from fossil fuels, and reducing our energy consumption and waste production. France’s new low-carbon strategy and the second national plan to adapt France to climate change will be presented at the end of the month.

Following the second One Planet Summit, held in the presence of the French President on the sidelines of the last United Nations General Assembly, we call on the countries that signed the Paris Agreement to redouble their efforts to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. France will continue working actively with its European partners to ensure that the commitments made at COP21 are revised upwards and that the EU carries the rest of the world with it to meet the Paris Agreement targets.

The IPCC report provides a solid basis for facilitative dialogue, the so-called Talanoa Dialogue, which will take place at COP24 in Katowice (3-14 December 2018) and which must lead the international community to heighten its ambition between now and 2020./.

Consult the IPCC report: http://report.ipcc.ch/sr15/pdf/sr15_spm_final.pdf