Hollande welcomes US, China climate change deal ratification
French President François Hollande on Saturdya welcomed the ratification of the Cop21 climate change agreement by the US and China at the G20 summit in Hangzhou. US President Barack Obama declared that future generations remember "the moment when we at last decided to save our planet".
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Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping handed the documents ratifying the agreement, drafted in Paris at the end of last year, to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon on Saturday.
Hollande hailed the ratification as an "important stage" by the world's "two biggest carbon emitters" and said it "opens the way to the Paris agreement coming into operation at the end of the year".
China and the US are responsible for 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Green bonds
Hollande was to fly to the summit on Saturday evening.
"In Huangzhou I will call for a speedy implementation of the Paris climate agreement, which requires ratification by a large number of states," he said before leaving.
The French president also confirmed that his country will issue the first-ever green bonds next year.
The government hopes the bonds will raise nine billion euros a year for environmental projects, sources say.
To read our coverage of the Paris Cop21 climate change conference click here
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