French President Nicolas Sarkozy emphasized Monday that the industrialized nations have special responsibility to combat climate change, with the first goal in that effort being the achievement of clean growth.
Addressing a thematic plenary of the high-level event on climate change, which is being held on the sidelines of the general debate of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, Sarkozy stressed that "a new economy must be invented."
He declared that France is willing to help other countries with new technologies that include nuclear energy.
Further priorities are protecting forests and assisting the adaptation of the most vulnerable populations, the French president said, adding that the question is not whether those goals could be financed, but how.
Carbon must have a price, either through market mechanisms or through taxes, over which a debate is ongoing in France, he noted, stressing that the approach must be by sector and no longer only by country.
In addition, Sarkozy said a portion of the emission credits must be auctioned and there must be a strong expansion of clean development mechanisms to enable "polluting" companies to invest in ecological development of the emerging and developing countries.
"Let us have the courage to allow all to join the carbon market voluntarily, with flexible carbon-emission objectives," he said, adding that public financing would also be indispensable.
Financing adaptation is the priority for Africa and the most vulnerable countries, he said.
France has devoted official development assistance amounting to more than 430 million euros to projects that fight climate change and intend to ensure their viability, Sarkozy noted.
The event, convened by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, is to discuss the climate challenge in order to prepare for the upcoming UN climate change conference to be held in Bali in December.
The conference will seek to determine future actions on mitigation, adaptation, the global carbon market and financing responses to climate change for the period after the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol - the current global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions - in 2012.
Source: Xinhua
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