President Francois Hollande In Climate Change Plea To Leaders

#Paris:  #Francois Hollande is to break off from tackling terror in France to visit Malta to make a climate change plea to the leaders of 60 Commonwealth countries.

In a highly unusual move, the French president will make a direct appeal to this key group of world leaders ahead of the climate change summit he will host in Paris next week.

Mr Hollande told David Cameron when they met in Paris on Monday that he wanted to stress to Commonwealth leaders the importance of reaching a historic deal on climate change.

The Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), being held over the weekend on the tiny Mediterranean island, is unusual because of the presence of not just the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, but also the Prince of Wales and Camilla.
earlier this week, hopes to make a major intervention during discussions on the subject in Malta

Commonwealth diplomats also suggest that his presence at the CHOGM summit alongside the Queen marks a transition towards the Prince representing the Royal Family at these gatherings instead of his 89-year-old mother.

After delivering his crucial Commons statement to MPs on Syria, Mr Cameron will travel to Malta via Vienna, where he will hold talks with the Austrian chancellor about the UK’s EU renegotiation bid.
After the climate change discussions in Malta on Friday, the leaders will head for the traditional CHOGM retreat, at which they will discuss the two issues currently at the top of most world leaders’ priorities: tackling extremism and radicalisation, and the migration crisis.

Mr Cameron has a third priority at the summit: tackling corruption in developing countries and in “all walks of life”, including sport.

The Prime Minister is expected to leave Malta early, on Saturday afternoon, to prepare to attend an emergency EU summit in Brussels on the migration crisis and then the climate change summit in Paris this Week, agencies,