Trump ‘not invited’ to Paris climate summit

PARIS (AFP): US President Donald Trump is not among the around 100 heads of state and government invited to next month’s climate summit in Paris, a French presidential aide said Tuesday.

“For now, President Donald Trump is not invited,” he said, while noting that representatives of the US government would attend.

Trump announced his decision to withdraw the United States from the historic 2015 Paris Agreement on limiting carbon emissions in June.

The pact calls for capping global warming at “well under” two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and 1.5 C if possible.

Around 800 organisations and public stakeholders will be on hand for the December 12 event to be held on Ile Seguin, an island in the Seine River southwest of Paris.

The meeting will follow the 23rd UN climate conference (COP23) that opened in Bonn, Germany, on Monday.

The Bonn meeting is dealing with mainly technical issues such as ensuring transparency and compliance, the reporting of emissions, and procedures for allocating climate funds.

The aide to French President Emmanuel Macron said the upcoming summit would aim to “build coalitions” involving cities, investment funds and development banks to further the goals of the accord.

“The idea is to show that there is action, that we must accelerate actions and find new sources of financing for very concrete projects,” he said, calling the meeting “very complementary” to the COP23.