Modi says India will go beyond Cop21 after meeting Macron
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed his country would go "above and beyond" the Paris climate change accord after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris Saturday. Speaking two days after President Donald Trump said the US would withdraw from the Cop21 deal, Macron said he and Modi were convinced their countries had "a lot to do" to work for ecological transition.
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The Paris accord is "part of the world's shared heritage", Modi said, promising to "continue to work above and beyond this accord so that future generations receive something good".
When announcing the US's intention to withdraw, Trump complained that India, which is the world's third largest carbon emitter after China and the US "will be able to double its coal production 2020".
But the country is on course to exceed the renewable energy targets it set itself in 2015 with prices of wind and solar energy reaching record lows last month and has cancelled coal projects.
"It is our common responsibility to protect the Earth, our mother planet." Modi told the media. "For me, for the Indian people, the protection of our planet's environment is an article of faith."
Macron to visit India this year
Macron, who repeated that France is "fully committed in the fight against [global] warming", announced that he will visit India this year for the first summit of the international solar alliance that France and India launched at Cop21.
The two leaders also discussed the fight against terrorism, promising to take joint initiatives against terror propaganda on the internet by the end of the year.
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