MARRAKESH: French President Francois Hollande urged US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to respect a global agreement to limit climate change, saying the deal was irreversible and inaction on global warming would be disastrous.
Hollande told a UN conference on climate change in Marrakesh, Morocco, that the 2015 agreement to limit emissions "is irreversible in law and in fact. In addition, it is irreversible in our minds".
"The United States, the largest economic power in the world, the second largest greenhouse gas emitter, must respect the commitments it has undertaken," he said, to applause from an audience of about 80 national leaders. Trump has called climate change a hoax and has said he wants to withdraw from the accord, which seeks to phase out world greenhouse gas emissions sometime between 2050 and 2100.
Hollande, an architect of the pact, said he would work with Trump, and that the agreement was in the interests of the American people, as well as US companies and cities that were trying to combat climate change.
"Inaction would be disastrous for the world. It would be disastrous for future generations and it would be dangerous for peace," he said, pointing to risks that ever more people could be displaced by famine or drought.
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