President Park Geun-hye left for France Sunday to attend a crucial U.N. conference on climate change, less than a week after she returned from a three-nation swing to attend a series of annual summits with regional leaders.
Park is set to deliver a speech at the leaders’ event in Paris on Monday and express South Korea’s commitment to actively join global efforts to launch a deal on combating climate change.
The leaders’ event — the opening of the conference — is designed to build political momentum for negotiations on a new legally binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It is set to bring together leaders from more than 140 countries, including U.S.
President Barack Obama, as well as U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The conference is set to run through Dec. 11 to try to produce a deal that will be applicable to all countries and seeks to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.
More than 160 countries — which account for about 90 percent of global emissions — have put forward climate targets for post-2020.
Park has said responses to climate change should be as viewed as “an opportunity to secure a new growth engine, not a burden.”
In June, South Korea offered to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent by 2030 from 850.6 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents, an amount Seoul says it would reach if it lets business run as usual.
Earlier this month, Park and other leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum said they are “firmly committed to achieving a fair, balanced, ambitious, durable, and dynamic agreement on climate change” during the conference to be held in Paris.
Also in Paris, Park is set to meet with the head of UNESCO, the U.N. cultural agency, according to Kim Kyou-hyun, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs.
The trip will also take Park to Prague for a summit with the leaders of the so-called Visegrad Group countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.
Park also plans to hold separate summits with the leaders of the four countries in Prague where she will make an official visit for the 25th anniversary of the establishment of bilateral diplomatic relations.
Park plans to hold in-depth discussions with the leaders on South Korean companies’ possible participation in major infrastructure projects being pursued by the four countries. (Yonhap)
