World leaders have met with business bosses to raise funds for a global shift to green energy at a climate change summit in Paris.
There was a bullish mood at the talks, with Arnold Schwarzenegger saying it did not matter that Donald Trump had backed out of the Paris climate accord because it still commands widespread support in the U.S.
One by one business leaders like Michael Bloomberg, and even former US secretary of state John Kerry, insisted that the world will shift to cleaner fuels and reduce emissions regardless of whether the Trump administration pitches in or not.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the summit, which included a breakfast meeting attended by leading businessmen including, from left: Michael Bloomberg, Bill Gates and Richard Branson
French President Emmanuel Macron hosted the summit, which included 164 prominent figures on the global stage, among them 50 heads of state.
Speaking at the event, former California governor Mr Schwarzenegger said: ‘It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump backed out of the Paris Agreement, because the private sector didn’t drop out, the public sector didn’t drop out, universities didn’t drop out, no one dropped out.
‘We at the subnational level, we’re going to pick up the slack.’
Mr Kerry called the absence of U.S. government officials from the summit ‘a disgrace’.
Central to Tuesday’s summit is finding ways to counter Mr Trump’s main argument: that the 2015 Paris accord on reducing global emissions would hurt US business.
Bill Gates and Elon Musk also attended the summit, where participants are announcing billions of dollars’ worth of projects to help poor countries and industries reduce emissions.
Mr Schwarzenegger said: ‘It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump backed out of the Paris Agreement
The event, co-hosted by the UN, the World Bank and Mr Macron, is being held on the second anniversary of the Paris climate accord, which was ratified by 170 countries.
Activists kept up pressure with a protest in the shadow of the domed Pantheon monument on Paris’ Left Bank, calling for an end to all investment in oil, gas and resource mining.
That was not far from the message opening the summit.
Top officials agreed that the global financial system isn’t shifting fast enough away from carbon emissions and toward energy and business projects that don’t aggravate climate change.
‘Financial pledges need to flow faster through more streamlined system and make a difference on the ground,’ said Fiji’s prime minister Frank Bainimarama, whose island nation is among those on the front lines of the rising sea levels and extreme storms worsened by human-made emissions.
‘We are all in the same canoe,’ rich countries and poor, he said.
Japanese foreign minister Taro Kono described ways that Japan is investing in climate monitoring technology and hydrogen energy but said ‘we have to do more and better’.
As the day progressed, announcements started rolling in.
A group of 225 investment funds managing more than 26 trillion US dollars in assets promised to pressure companies to curb their greenhouse gas emissions and to disclose climate-related financial information.
The event, co-hosted by the UN, the World Bank and Mr Macron,(pictured with Mr Gates) is being held on the second anniversary of the Paris climate accord
Mr Macron, left, poses with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, second left, World Bank President Jim Yong Kim and Brigitte Macron outside the Elysee Palace
Mrs Macron welcomes Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May for a lunch at the Elysee Palace
The group, which includes the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, the largest US public pension fund, says it will focus on 100 of the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters.
Financial institutions are using the meeting to highlight the need to ensure that their investments don’t suffer from, or contribute to, the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and more extreme weather.
Mr Macron also hosted leading world philanthropists on Tuesday morning to encourage more climate-related investment.
Mr Bloomberg, the former New York mayor, says environmentalists owe Mr Trump a debt of ‘gratitude’ for acting as a ‘rallying cry’ for action on climate change.
The event included 50 heads of state and government, among them Mrs May, pictured with Mr Macron
He said the private sector coalition called America’s Pledge, that promises to honour goals set in 2015, ‘now represents half of the US economy’.
Mr Kerry told that many Americans remain ‘absolutely committed’ to the Paris accord.
He said 38 states have legislation pushing renewable energy and 90 major American cities support the Paris accord fighting global warming.
Discussing the absence of American officials at the event, he said: ‘It’s very disappointing, it’s worse than disappointing, it’s actually a disgrace when you consider the facts, the science, the common sense, all the work that’s been done.’
The Paris Agreement took ’26 years of work that’s being dishonoured by people who don’t even understand the science,’ he added.
Bloomberg said the 1,700-member coalition of regional governments, cities, companies, and civil society groups that have formed America’s Pledge, represent more than half the US economy.
‘If it was a country it would have the world´s third-largest economy and it continues to grow,’ he said.
‘Together we are going to meet the goal set by this country in Paris by reducing emissions by at least 26 percent and there isn’t anything that Washington can do to stop this,’ he added.
Mr Schwarzenegger is founder of climate change group R20 and a former governor of California
Richard Branson and Bill Gates leave after a meeting with Mr Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris
Mr Schwarzenegger’s rings are pictured as he arrives at the Elysee Palace prior to a meeting about climate change
Among the issues being discussed in Paris is how to increase financial support for poor countries. Pictured: Richard Branson leaving the summit
‘On the contrary, President Trump has helped rally people who understand the problem to join forces and to actually do something rather than wait for the federal government… In that sense we owe President Trump a measure of gratitude for helping us meet our goals,’ he quipped.
Some 3,100 security personnel fanned out around Paris for Tuesday’s event, including extra patrol boats along the Seine River.
Mr Macron called for stronger action in the fight against climate change, as he hosted world leaders for talks two years to the day since the Paris agreement.
‘We are very far from the goal of the Paris agreement of limiting the rise in temperatures to below a two-degree threshold,’ he told Le Monde newspaper.
‘Without much stronger mobilisation, a jolt to our means of production and development, we will not succeed,’ he warned.
He told world leaders: ‘We are losing the battle’ against global warming. ‘We’re not moving fast enough, that’s the problem.’
Heads of State arrive on the banks of the Seine river before boarding a boat to the One Planet Summit
Security boats sail next to ‘Mirage’ boat carrying heads of State on its way to the Seine Musicale, the event venue