No global accord on climate change without financial commitment, says Hollande

The international climate conference scheduled for the year-end in Paris is doomed to fail without firm financial commitment by the world's rich nations to curb climate degradation, French President Francois Hollande said Monday.

He warned there were real risks of stakeholders not reaching a global and restrictive accord on climate change, stressing "there will be no agreement if there is no firm commitment on finance."

"We need a pre-agreement on the question of finance" ahead of the climate meeting, said Hollande, so that heads of state attending the event "can be certain that a deal will be closed."

At the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009, negotiations failed to limit greenhouses and rich nations failed to deliver on their promise to grant 100 billion U. S. dollars to poorer countries to cope with climate change, the French president recalled.

"If we do not conclude an accord, if no significant action is taken, there would not be hundreds of thousands of refugees in the next 20-30 years. We would have to deal with millions," he added.

France will host the Climate Conference in Paris (COP21) in December where officials target a global and binding agreement to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius.

To date, 47 countries out of 195 participating in the international climate meeting submitted their national contributions to curb green gas emissions.

The list includes the 28-member countries in the European bloc, China, the United States and Russia. Endit