The French President declared his full commitment to the fight climate change despite the energy and food crises caused by the war in Ukraine.
ADVERTISEMENTFrench President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak are just two of the more than 100 world leaders attending this week's UN COP27 climate change summit in Egypt.
On Monday, Macron pleaded for a ban on all deep-sea mining, warning that despite the energy and food crisis due to war in Ukraine, climate should remain a priority.
"We will not sacrifice our climate commitments under the energy threat from Russia and therefore all the commitments held by nations must be upheld," said the French President.
"For the richer countries, especially the European countries including France, this has been this has been the delivery of our national strategies, in line with our commitments."
For the Chief advisor of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Macron's speech is a positive political signal that important negotiations have started.
"Climate change is the biggest issue we are facing at the moment. There's lots of crises happening: crisis of biodiversity, crisis of energy and food, but climate change is there in the background and in some cases in the foreground of everything," said Stephen Cornelius, the Deputy Global Leader on Climate and Energy at WWF told Euronews.
"We are seeing widespread catastrophes happening due to climate change and having the world leaders show up is really important," he said.
The speeches of the heads of state and government mark the political launch of COP27.
Each leader is using this platform to underline the urgency of coordinated global action and above all solidarity.
But behind all of these words, countries most threatened by the climate crisis are expecting more action.
These calls will be repeated on the second day of the leaders' summit, before giving way to the negotiators that will try to implement these commitments.