China, France defend Paris pact
BEIJING: The Paris climate accord is “irreversible,” President Xi Jinping and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron said in Beijing on Wednesday after the US notified the United Nations of its intention to leave the deal.
Xi and Macron’s decision to put up a united front came in the backdrop of several leading powers expressing concern over President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the accord amid growing international concern on climate change. In a joint statement, the two leaders reaffirmed “their firm support for the Paris accord which they consider as an irreversible process and a compass for strong action on climate.”
Speaking at the Great Hall of the People, Macron said he
“deplores the choices made by others” without naming any country or leader. “But I want to look at them as marginal choices,” Macron said.
With the European Union,
China, and Russia backing the pact, said Macron, “the isolated choice of one or another is not enough to change the course of the world. It only leads to marginalisation.”
Xi urged the international community to “jointly protect our homeland planet earth”, saying “we are against the attempt to place national interests above the common interests of humanity”.
ANIMALS GIVE BIRTH EARLY DUE TO WARMING LONDON: Researchers have found some of the first evidence that global warming is causing wild animals to give birth earlier in the year, a discovery that sheds more light on the impact of the climate crisis on wildlife.
The researchers, including those from the University of Edinburgh in the UK and the Australian National University, said that populations of the red deer present in the Isle of Rum in Scotland are undergoing genetic changes that have led to a rapid shift in the birth dates of offspring in recent years.