France urges more countries to promise emissions cuts ahead of UN climate talks in Paris
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}France is urging holdout countries to submit their pledges to curb greenhouse gas pollution ahead of a major U.N. climate conference in Paris.
A total of 146 nations accounting for 87 percent of global carbon emissions submitted their pledges by a U.N. deadline last week. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, in a statement Sunday, pressed others to submit theirs "as soon as possible."
The Nov. 30-Dec. 11 conference is aiming for an ambitious deal to keep the rise in worldwide temperatures below 2 degrees C (4 F) this century.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Fabius said the pledges so far would slow global warming to a rise of less than 3 degrees C — better than "the most pessimistic scenarios" but not enough to avoid irreversible impact to the Earth's climate system.