After attacks, Paris to host climate summit with tighter security

Terror has cast its dark shadow on the climate talks scheduled to be held in Paris, with a live webcast of a 24 hour marathon by Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore to highlight climate change suspended and France imposing new security restrictions for the talks.

Updated on: Nov 15, 2015, 10:09:54 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Terror has cast its dark shadow on the climate talks scheduled to be held in Paris, with a live webcast of a 24 hour marathon by Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore to highlight climate change suspended and France imposing new security restrictions for the talks.

French military patrol near the Eiffel Tower the day after a series of deadly attacks in Paris. (Reuters Photo)

Over 100 heads of states, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama, were expected to participate in the inaugural of the fortnight-long Paris climate summit starting on November 30, which aims to have most ambitious deal among 196 nations to reduce global warming causing carbon emissions.

Soon after the attack, which left 127 persons dead, many of the world leaders reiterated their commitment to be there for the summit that is being organised in outskirts of the city Le Bourget. The summit will also mark world leaders showing solidarity with France to fight terror.

AFP quoted French authorities ruling out the possibility of the cancellation or postponing the mega-event, for which the government has been preparing for the last one year.

Agencies also quoted French authorities as saying that the border restrictions imposed on Saturday will continue for the climate summit – meaning that free travel from within European countries would happen only after proper security checks. However, those have Schengen visas will not face any problem, a French Embassy statement in Delhi said.

The first implication of the terror attack was visible on Saturday with authorities suspending live webcast of 24 hours of Reality and Live Earth hosted by Gore as precursor to the summit. Part of the marathon was to be held at Eiffel Tower, which has been closed, and was also from other parts of the world.

Agencies reported sources said that some pre-summit events including a meet of youth leaders from across the world on climate change may be cancelled or pruned.

A march of over 10,000 people has been planned through Paris on November 29, asking world leaders to ensure an ambitious deal.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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