French President Emmanuel Macron says Europe should make up the shortfall in funding for the U.N.’s scientific expert panel on climate change left by the U.S. decision to hold back its contribution.
The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has said it will cut funding for the panel, known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which provides key guidance on global warming to governments around the world.
Mr. Macron told a global climate meeting in Bonn, Germany, on Wednesday that the panel “won’t lack a single euro” from next year onward.
The French president, who is hosting a meeting on the second anniversary of the Paris climate accord next month, also said his country is committed to ending the use of coal-fired power plants by 2021.
Germany’s president has suggested that the U.S. decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accord may be reversed again in the coming years.
Frank-Walter Steinmeier says that while the world has suffered some “setbacks” in efforts to curb global warming, the momentum is difficult to stop.
Mr. Steinmeier, whose post as head of state is largely ceremonial, spoke at the opening Wednesday of a high-level meeting at global climate talks in Bonn, Germany.
Without naming the U.S. directly, Steinmeier told national leaders and ministers that “some who today have left the ship’s bridge for the dinghy may return to our big ship in a couple of years.”