Paris climate meet must have universal agreement: French envoy

French Ambassador Francois Richier on Thursday said the climate change conference in Paris later this year should frame a ‘universal agreement’ of all countries' commitment to reduce rising temperature and that it must address different situations of carbon emission faced by them.

"It should be a universal agreement as it the biggest challenge to bring everyone on the same page but also differentiated as everyone face peculiar situations in regard to carbon emission," Richier said at a conference on climate change organised by ASSOCHAM.

"We have the lowest carbon emission in Europe and probably in the western world due to the size of our nuclear energy sector.

“Therefore, we are not in the same basket in comparison to other developed countries. So the agreement has to be differentiated. Likewise, India has a high carbon emission with very low per capita emission," he said.

He said that energy will be the first chapter to be addressed in the conference as it is the key factor in rising temperature.

"Energy contributes 70 per cent to the increasing temperature or carbon emission.

“The ambitious agenda that Indian government has set-up for renewal energy is exactly the kind of measure that is needed to be adopted everywhere," he said.

Speaking on private sector financing the climate change initiative, he said that the role of business community is of utmost important in mitigating the challenge but it should move parallel to the scientific opinions.

"There is more and more investment in solar energy and technology. This is a signal that people in business community are already thinking of long term and this is very encouraging situation."

"It is also important to ensure that the views of the financial community and that of scientific community move together in order to arrive at positive result in the respect of climate change," the ambassador said.

Norwegian Ambassador Eivind S Homme said that high economic growth and challenges of climate change can be met together by focusing on three goals -- improving resource productivity, increasing investment in resource infrastructure and promoting innovation.

"We don't have to choose between high economic growth or fighting poverty and fighting climate change.

“Both can be achieved together by focusing on three core goals, improving resource productivity, increasing investment in resource infrastructure and promoting innovation," he said, adding smart mix of policies can be another way to achieve that.

He said that framing a policy for making energy sector a low carbon emission industry is the major challenge.     

"(The) key challenge facing us is how to create a policy framework for transformation of the energy sector into a low carbon emission energy sector.

“How can governments, businesses and cities deliver more effectively on social and economical goals while reducing the risk of climate change," he said.

Image: India is already facing the consequences of climate change. Photograph: Jayanta Dey/Reuters