The Special Envoy of the President of the French Republic for the Protection of the Planet, Nicolas Hulot, will be in the Philippines from January 20 to 25 to prepare the visit of French President François Hollande in the first half of 2015.
In view of the 21st session of the Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris in December 2015, climate change ranks high in the agenda of Mr. Hulot’s visit to the Philippines. In Manila, he will be participating in a series of high-level meetings with Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario, Climate Change Commissioner Lucille Sering, and Senate Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources Chairperson Sen. Loren Legarda. He will also be meeting other groups and personalities involved in the fight against climate change and in the promotion of sustainable development, including DFA officials, civil society representatives, members of the academe and students.
From Manila, Mr. Hulot will be traveling to Tacloban and Guiuan, two of the provinces most devastated by Supertyphoon Yolanda in 2013. He will visit the reconstruction projects in Daanbantayan, Cebu led by the France-Philippines United Action, a consortium of French companies in the Philippines engaged in reconstruction efforts following the passage of Supertyphoon Yolanda.
Appointed by President Hollande in 2012, Mr. Hulot’s mission as the Special Envoy for the Protection of the Planet is to reach out to different communities on energy and climate challenges and promote the implementation of innovative policies to address these challenges, to inform the public and contribute to the preparations for COP21, and to raise the interest of public opinion, key actors and world leaders on environmental issues.
The 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference in December will be crucial as countries from all over the world must agree on an ambitious, binding agreement to limit global warming to below 2°C.