China, France call for more cooperation on climate change

Story by CCTV NewsCalling for more cooperation on climate changeThe China-France Climate and Green Economy Forum in Beijing has business leaders discussing sustainable development and climate change cooperation.

The French President is in Seoul following his trip to Beijing where the two countries took a historic step towards tackling climate change. Recent examples of this can be found in President Xi’s super visit to the United Kingdom, German Chancellor Merkel’s recent visit to China and now just recently the French President Francois Hollande concluded an important state visit to China from November 2-3.

President Park Geun-hye and French President François Hollande held a summit on Wednesday and adopted an action plan to strengthen the two nations’ comprehensive partnership in the 21st century.

Trade volume between the two countries past year stood at slightly more than US$9 billion.

If we account for the entire European Union, in that case European Union becomes China’s largest trading partner.

South Korea has been an active advocate of green growth as the host country of the Green Climate Fund ― a global fund mechanism to finance developing countries’ adaptation to climate change. The Korean startups can receive financial and other aid in France while their French counterparts can get similar support in Korea.

To promote exchanges between start-up companies from both countries, the French government will open French Tech Hub, an agency assisting start-up firms, in Seoul next year.

The French President, Francois Hollande, was invited this morning by the China Entrepreneur Club to a meeting with about 200 prominent businesspersons in Beijing, including such heavy-weight Chinese entrepreneurs as Jack Massachusetts, Wang Jianlin and Guo Guangchang.

In addition, France has made a decision to include Korean as one of the foreign languages for college entrance exams beginning 2017 and the two nations agreed to increase student exchanges by recognizing academic careers and degrees from each other’s higher education.

According to a joint declaration issued by China and France, the two nations have agreed that a global climate change pact must require countries to raise their emission cuts every five years.

Park and Hollande later observed the signing of six memorandums of understanding calling for cooperation in a broader range of areas, including economy, education, high-tech sector as well as space programs.