ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi departed for Paris on Monday to attend the international conference held on the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change.
Abadi, heading a governmental delegation, will present Iraq’s vision, a statement from the Iraqi government read.
Iraq, as part of its plan of action to fight global warming, is looking to prevent climate change impacting on the country’s vital economy and environment sectors, the statement explained.
The conference begins on December 12, the second anniversary of the Paris Agreement on climate change. Iraq has ratified the agreement.
French President Emmanuel Macron hosts the One Planet Summit that aims to commit world leaders and stakeholders to concrete action to fight climate change, including providing financial commitments to the developing world.
Secretary-General of the United Nations Antonio Guterres and head of the World Bank Group Jim Yong Kim, among others, will attend the meeting this year.
The Paris Agreement was hailed as a historic milestone on climate change in 2015 when many world leaders committed to a course of action to limit the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius. The United States under President Donald Trump, however, pulled out of the agreement, dealing a blow to the international accord.
Abadi will meet other world leaders on the sidelines of the conference, his office said.
He last visited Paris on October 5 at the invitation of President Macron. The two mainly discussed relations between Erbil and Baghdad following the Kurdistan vote on independence.
The French president offered to mediate talks between the two sides after he hosted a KRG delegation headed by Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani on December 2.
