Martinique to Host Caribbean Conference on Climate Change

FORT-DE-FRANCE, Martinique, April 15 2015 – In the context of the World Climate Conference in December in Paris, the French Region Martinique has organised a Caribbean conference on climate change.

Serge Letchimy, the President of the Regional Council, said French President Francois Hollande will attend the one-day summit here next month.

Letchimy said that the May 9 summit will be aimed at mobilising and preparing for the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21) for the United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change.

He said the summit will be chaired by President Hollande and the French overseas territories and will allow them to discuss their input which must be integrated in a “schedule of solutions” adapted to the specificities of these territories.

The summit here is also aimed at contributing to the writing of an ambitious and binding global agreement which must be adopted during the COP21 to be held at the end of this year.

With the submission by the United States of its climate action plan alongside those of Switzerland, the members of the European Union, Norway and Mexico, well over 30 countries have now made their contribution to the new, universal Paris climate change agreement of
2015.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said: “According to UNFCCC data, two thirds of industrialized countries covering 65 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from the industrialized part of the world have now set out their ambition
for the new agreement which comes into effect in 2020—importantly many of these contributions also speak to longer term aims representative of progressively increasing ambition over time.”

“Over the coming months, we expect many more nations to come forward to make their submissions public. The pace at which these contributions are coming forward bodes well for Paris and beyond,” she added.