French firms plan 320 bln euro investment to curb climate change

PARIS, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) -- A total of 89 French companies pledged to invest 320 billion euros (about 376.44 billion U.S. dollars) over the next three years to stem greenhouse emission as part of their commitment for clean businesses, the country's employers organization Medef announced on Monday.

"These 89 companies mark a new stage. Other companies have already expressed willingness to join them to innovate and generate low carbon products, solutions and services," Medef said.

"With this new commitment of French companies, the private sector shows that the challenge of the ecological transition has moved to the stage of financing and concrete implementation," it added.

French enterprises, including French car giant PSA, telecommunications company Orange, nuclear group Areva, will invest billions of euros over the 2016-2020 period in "research, development and innovation to move to a low carbon society," according to the organization.

France's private sector initiative comes as Paris on Tuesday prepares to host the "One Planet Summit", an international meeting seeking to re-launch the fight against global warming, notably by focusing on ways to finance the international commitment to fight climate change as agreed in the Paris climate accord. Enditem