Hollande seeks 'historic' climate agreement at Paris conference

French President François Hollande has urged the world's nations to make history in Paris next year by signing a globally binding climate pact that he hopes will be his government's legacy.

French President Francois Hollande delivers his speech during the Environmental Conference at the Elysee Palace in Paris, 27 November 2014. Reuters/Michel Euler/Pool

Speaking at the opening of a three-day environmental conference in Paris on Thursday, Hollande said France had to be a model in terms of energy transition.

The conference is charged with setting out a Green roadmap for France in the coming years

"We want an end to all French support for coal and fossil fuels abroad, we want taxes on European transitions to be as broad as possible and we want an ecotax that sends a strong signal to investors to invest in renewable energies and not fossil fuels," commented Alix Mazounie from the environmental group Réseau Climat (Climate Network). 

In December 2015 Paris will host a UN conference that for the first time aims to seal a binding universal agreement on cutting greenhouse-gas emissions to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius.

A recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said failure would lead to worsening droughts, floods, rising seas and humans scrambling for food and resources.