LE BOURGET, France (AP) — The latest news from the U.N. climate conference in Paris, which runs through Dec. 11. All times local:
12:30 p.m.
France is promising 8 billion euros over the next five years for investment in renewable energy in Africa and to increase Africans’ access to electricity.
President Francois Hollande’s pledge Tuesday came in a meeting with 12 African leaders about the threats from climate change, including coastal erosion, advancing deserts and rivers that are drying up. The meeting is part of larger talks outside Paris this week and next aimed at an international accord to fight global warming.
“When a young student is forced to go study under a street lamp at night, it clearly demonstrates the electricity issue,” Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita said.
Hollande said, “The world, and in particular the developed world, owes the African continent an environmental debt.”
The meeting also focused on financing for an African Union initiative known as the Great Green Wall, launched in 2007 to gather 11 countries to plant trees to combat the encroaching Sahara Desert and help people adapt to climate change.
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9:45 a.m.
French President Francois Hollande is holding talks with African leaders about what their countries need to cope with and reduce global warming.
The meeting Tuesday is part of broader international diplomatic efforts toward a possible long-term accord for all countries to cut man-made carbon emissions. Those emissions produce heat-trapping gases and scientists say are causing glaciers to melt and sea levels to rise and leading to more and more droughts and other extreme weather.
Hollande hosted President Barack Obama and 149 other world dignitaries Monday to kick off two weeks of U.N.-led climate talks outside Paris. The leaders agreed that something must be done to protect the planet for future generations, but now must overcome disagreements over who should shoulder the economic responsibility for cutting emissions and protecting countries already hit by climate change.
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9:15 a.m.
Envoys at the Paris climate conference say governments and companies need to do more to protect forests, which can help slow global warming.
Prince Charles, South American indigenous leaders and other dignitaries are holding a special meeting Tuesday to call attention to shrinking global forests from South America to Russia and Africa.
Peru’s Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal told reporters ahead of the meeting that companies too need to do their part to limit deforestation. Envoys are urging greater efforts against illegal logging.
The world’s forests play an important role in absorbing carbon dioxide released by man-made emissions from burning oil, gas and coal.
The meeting is part of two weeks of U.N.-led talks aimed at a worldwide, long-term accord to cut human-made emissions blamed for climate change.
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