World leaders, high security at new Paris climate summit
World Bank to stop financing oil and gas projects in 2 years, president says
PARIS — More than 50 world leaders joined bankers, energy magnates and others Tuesday in Paris for a summit that President Emmanuel Macron hopes will give new momentum to the fight against global warming — despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate accord.
Sean Penn, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bill Gates and Elon Musk were among prominent figures joining the world leaders at the summit, where participants are expected to announce billions of dollars’ worth of projects to help poor countries and industries reduce emissions.
Activists kept up pressure with a protest in the shadow of the domed Pantheon monument calling for an end to all investment in oil, gas and resource mining.
That wasn’t far from the message from top officials opening the summit: They agreed that the global financial system isn’t shifting fast enough away from carbon emissions and toward energy and business projects that don’t aggravate climate change.
“Financial pledges need to flow faster through more streamlined system and make a difference on the ground,” said Fiji’s Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, whose island nation is among those on the front lines of the rising sea levels and extreme storms worsened by human-made emissions.
“We are all in the same canoe,” rich countries and poor, he said.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim said the bank will stop financing oil and gas projects in two years.
Kim said the World Bank will cease financing exploration and extraction projects after 2019, except “in exceptional circumstances” for the poorest countries where there is a clear benefit in terms of energy access and the project fits within the countries’ Paris Agreement commitments.
Kim also mentioned initiatives in different parts of the world aimed at helping countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Those include a multimillion-dollar deal to deploy millions of LED bulbs and tube lights, thousands of electric cars and charging stations and millions of smart meters throughout India.
California Gov. Jerry Brown urged Trump to start fighting climate change or to “get out of the way” and let the rest of the world work on reducing emissions and investing in clean energy. Brown said “the rest of the world is very serious about climate change. So are the scientists.”
He argued against Trump’s plans to resurrect coal mining, saying “it’s time for President Trump to join the rest of the world, not oppose it” on climate change.
Brown cited recent violent wildfires in California as an example of extreme weather worsened by human-made climate change. He says “the fires are burning in California. They’ll be burning in France, burning all around the world” if countries don’t reduce their emissions.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Kono described ways Japan is investing in climate monitoring technology and hydrogen energy, but said “we have to do more and better.”
About 3,100 security personnel were fanned out around Paris for Tuesday’s event, including extra patrol boats along the Seine River. Macron accompanied the visiting leaders to the summit site on a river island by boat.
Macron, who’s also using the event to raise his international profile, did not invite Trump.
On Monday, Macron awarded 18 climate scientists — most of them based in the U.S. — multimillion-euro grants to relocate to France for the rest of Trump’s term. Trump has expressed skepticism about global warming and said the Paris accord would hurt U.S. business.
The “Make Our Planet Great Again” grants — a nod to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan — are part of Macron’s efforts to counter Trump on the climate change front. Macron announced a contest for the projects in June, hours after Trump declared he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate accord.
The summit, co-hosted by the United Nations, World Bank and Macron, is being held on the second anniversary of the Paris climate accord, ratified by 170 countries.
Germany’s Angela Merkel, who was once labelled the ’climate chancellor’ for her efforts to curb global warming, has faced domestic criticism for failing to attend the summit.
Annalena Baerbock, a spokeswoman on climate issues for Germany’s opposition Green party, said Tuesday that Macron appeared to be overtaking Merkel as Europe’s leading lobbyist on climate issues.
“I think that’s not a good sign,” Baerbock said.