Macron urges US, China to pay their fair share for climate change

French President Emmanuel Macron has urged the United States, China and other non-European rich nations to pay their fair share to help poorer countries deal with climate change.

A flood victim pushes his donkey cart on flooded highway, following rains and floods during the monsoon season in Sehwan, Pakistan, September 16, 2022. REUTERS - AKHTAR SOOMRO

"We need the United States and China to step up" on emissions cuts and financial aid, Macron told French and African climate campaigners on Monday on the sidelines of the UN climate summit (COP27) in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

"Europeans are paying," he said. "We are the only ones paying."

"Pressure must be put on rich non-European countries, telling them, 'you have to pay your fair share'," he said.

Stepping up financial aid to poorer countries that face the brunt of climate-induced disasters has emerged as a major issue at the 13-day climate conference that began on Sunday.

The heads of developing nations won a small victory when delegates agreed to put the controversial issue of money for "loss and damage" on the agenda.

France's President Emmanuel Macron meets with young Africans, on the sideline of the COP27 climate summit, in Egypt's Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh on November 7, 2022. AFP - LUDOVIC MARIN

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Nearly 100 heads of state and government will speak at the summit on Monday and Tuesday, but China's President Xi Jinping, whose country is the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases, is not attending the conference.

US President Joe Biden, whose country ranks second on the top-polluters list, will join COP27 later this week after midterm elections on Tuesday that could put Republicans hostile to international action on climate change in charge of Congress.

Fresh from his own election victory, Brazil's Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to attend the summit later on, with hopes that he will protect the Amazon from deforestation after defeating climate-sceptic President Jair Bolsonaro.

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Another new leader, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, reversed a decision not to attend the talks and is due to urge countries to move "further and faster" in transitioning away from fossil fuels. 

Macron and Sunak are due to hold talks on the sidelines of the summit later today.

(with AFP)