France to give Africa €2bn for green energy

As part of the fight against desertification and adaptation to climate change, Hollande said that France would triple its bilateral commitments gradually in Africa, to achieve 1 billion euros annually by 2020.

France will give African countries €2bn over the next four years to develop renewable energy and replace the fossil fuels that drive global warming, President Francois Hollande said on Tuesday.

“France will devote six billion euros between 2016 and 2020 for electricity provision on the continent” of Africa, he said on the sidelines of a United Nations climate conference in the outskirts of Paris.

Hollande hosted President Barack Obama and 149 other world dignitaries Monday to kick off two weeks of U.N.-led climate talks outside Paris. His government has outlined measures such as a plan to add 175 GW of renewable energy by 2022 as well as development strategy that will enable India to transition to a more sustainable energy mix. Scientists have linked the emission of greenhouse gases to rapid climate change. The World Bank is calling for “climate justice” for the continent.

African countries generate 4% of global greenhouse gases a year, a quarter of that coming from economic giant SA alone.

Both surveys found that 50% of citizens approved of his actions as the country’s leader, a big step forward for the 61-year-old who only last year was considered the least popular president in modern French history.

LE BOURGET, France (AP) – From deserts encroaching on African farmland to rising sea levels shrinking islands of the South Pacific, leaders of poor nations most affected by climate change shared their stories of global warming with leaders of some of the richest on Tuesday.

Climate impacts were already severe, she said, pointing to “a drought without precedent for decades”.