China, France to work together to make Paris climate talks a success

Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) meets with French President Francois Hollande in Paris, France, Nov 29, 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

PARIS - Chinese President Xi Jinping and his French counterpart Francois Hollande met here late Sunday ahead of a key United Nations (UN) climate change conference, vowing to work together to make the conference a success.

Some 150 world leaders have arrived in Paris to "lend political impetus" to the Paris conference starting on Monday.

Earlier this month, Xi and Hollande issued a joint statement on climate change in Beijing, pledging to promote a working program to accelerate pre-2020 efforts in mitigation, adaptation and support during the upcoming Paris summit.

Applauding the preparations France has made for the conference, Xi said, by attending the conference, he hopes to show the international community China's firm support for France in its efforts to host a successful conference and for the reaching of an international agreement applicable to all parties.

Xi said his country hopes that the outcome of the conference should reflect the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" and be conducive to the creation of a global mechanism to address climate change beyond 2020.

Xi, among other world leaders, is scheduled to deliver a speech on Monday at the opening ceremony of the two-week conference, officially called the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

The highly-anticipated meeting aims to yield a new international agreement to reduce greenhouse gases beyond 2020, when the 1997 Kyoto Protocol expires.

Expressing his warm welcome, President Hollande said the presence of President Xi at the Paris conference represents a show of China's staunch determination to help produce an agreement at the conference.

Hollande said he fully agrees with his Chinese counterpart's propositions on what outcome the conference should achieve, adding that the joint statement issued earlier in Beijing has laid an important foundation for making the conference a success, and France is willing to work together with China to maintain communication and coordination to achieve it.

On China-French cooperation in other fields, Xi urged the two sides to maintain high-level political dialogue, timely implement the major cooperation projects and agreements agreed earlier and foster new bright spots in cooperation.

The two sides should also give full play to the initiative of local governments for cooperation in the fields of economy and trade, culture, science and technology, education and tourism, Xi added.

As the host country of the 2016 Group of Twenty (G20) summit, China is willing to maintain close communication with France so as to make the summit a success, and strengthen strategic coordination and cooperation in global economic governance, the Chinese president said.

Hollande called upon the two sides to actively carry out the important consensus reached between him and Xi, and to deepen cooperation in the fields of investment, economy and trade and nuclear energy.

He thanked the Chinese president for his renewed condolence to France over the Paris terrorist attack, which killed 130 people and injured more than 350 others.