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Korea’s role crucial to fight climate change

May 22, 2015

Annick Girardin, French Minister of State for Development and Francophony. (Korea Times file)

By Kang Hyun-kyung

The risk of global warming is so serious that all countries, industrialized and developing, need to join hands in the global campaign to cut emissions, according to a French minister on Friday.

Annick Girardin, French Minister of State for Development and Francophony, said that among other countries, Korea has a crucial role to play in the fight against climate change because it is one of the global technology giants.

“Technology transfer, especially green technology, is one of the core issues that will be discussed during the Paris Climate Change Conference in December,” she said through an interpreter during a press meeting at French Ambassador Jerome Pasquier’s residence in Seoul.

“Technology transfer is the topic that will interest especially developing countries. Korea is one of the first batch of countries that promised financial contribution to the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and was able to have the GCF headquarters thanks to its determination and strong will to contribute to the global effort to fight climate change.”

The GCF was introduced to help developing countries fight climate change with financial support.

Giradin visited Korea for the World Education Forum in Songdo, Incheon, leading the French delegation.

She noted that Korea is one of the critical members with whom the French government will work closely to make the Paris summit successful.

During the Paris conference, she said, all governments needed to agree on binding measures to curb temperature increases to no more than 2 degrees Celsius. “If no measures are taken on global warming, the temperature will go up 4 degrees Celsius every year and this will result in the rise of the sea level 1 meter annually,” she said.

The French Embassy in Seoul hosted the press meeting to raise the Korean public’s awareness of the climate change meeting, which will be one of the largest global gatherings in history.

Ambassador Pasquier said Korea could play a role facilitating the climate change discussion between industrialized and developing countries because it had risen from the ashes of the Korean War to become one of Asia’s largest economies.

“The French government has high expectation on the role of Korea at the climate summit,” he said.

The French Embassy said about 40,000 government officials, activists and people from the private sector would be joining the gathering.