‘Tech-sharing key to success on climate’

French President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday that sharing emissions-cutting technology with emerging nations like India and China will be a key part of the “success or failure” of climate change talks in Paris in December.

Mr Hollande made the call on a visit to South Korea, the first by a French head of state in 15 years, where he is looking to bring Seoul on board as a “very useful” ally in securing a global climate deal in Paris in December.

He flew to South Korea after a visit to China, where he reached what he described as a “historic” agreement that the international deal on tackling climate change to be negotiated in Paris should include checks on compliance.

The November 30-December 11 conference, to be attended by at least 80 world leaders, seeks a single global agreement, with the goal of capping warming at 2°C over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

At a climate change and green growth round table in Seoul, Mr Hollande stressed the critical importance of sharing emissions-cutting technology with emerging countries like India and China.

“It’s not just about fixing norms and limits, but also about taking a big technological leap, and not being scared to share technology,” he said. “To my mind, that is what will decide success or failure,” he added.

Several countries, including India, have said they want assurances of finance and clean-energy technology transfers from richer nations to adapt to a new, climate-altered world.

Mr Hollande is hoping South Korea, which hosts the Green Climate Fund — the global fund created to spearhead climate change financing — will act as a go-between in negotiations on whether developed or developing countries should bear more of the burden for reducing emissions.

The French President said the negotiations would begin before the Paris conference, with leaders of the G20 group of leading industrialised and emerging economies due to meet next week at a summit in Turkey.

“Success in Paris needs to be secured before Paris, and that’s why I thought it was necessary to stop over in Seoul,” Mr Hollande told the round table.