News / France

138 world leaders due in terror-hit Paris for climate change summit

Friday, 20 November 2015 6:51 PM [ Last Update: Friday, 20 November 2015 6:51 PM ]

French gendarmes (R) enforcing the Vigipirate plan, France’s national security alert system, are pictured on November 19, 2015 on Place Saint-Michel in Paris. ©AFP

France says the leaders of 138 countries have so far declared their readiness to take part in a summit due to open in Paris at the end of this month to tackle the climate change issue.

The French government said on Friday that world leaders, including Russian President Vladimir Putin and his counterparts from China and the US, Xi Jinping and Barack Obama, as well as Narendra Modi of India have confirmed that they would attend the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP) slated for November 30.

The international event will be held in the French capital, Paris, some two weeks after a terrorist attack, claimed by the Daesh Takfiri terror group, left 130 people dead and over 350 others injured in the city.

Around 40,000 delegates, journalists, observers and exhibitors are due in terror-stricken Paris for the conference.

French policemen patrol on the Champs-Elysees avenue, on November 19, 2015, as part of the security measures set following the November 13 attacks. ©AFP

Paris says none of the world leaders has so far cancelled attendance in the summit, vowing that it will not “give up in the face of violence” by cancelling the conference, which is aimed at limiting average global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Last month, Christiana Figueres, the UN’s climate change chief, called on all states to make greater efforts to reverse global warming.

She expressed hope that a drop in the costs of technology would help pave the way for countries to cut on their greenhouse gases emissions, adding that there is a strong political will to forge a deal at the Paris summit.

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