France’s Macron asks China’s Xi Jinping for signal ahead of COP26

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron asked China’s President Xi Jinping during a phone call on Tuesday to send the world a “decisive signal” on climate change ahead of the COP26 summit in Scotland on the topic, the French Presidency said in a statement.

Macron encouraged Xi to notably raise China’s goals in terms of efforts to address the climate crisis and to make “concrete” progress toward ending China’s reliance on coal. Macron also called for greater reciprocity in the rebalancing of the trade relationship between Europe and China, notably in terms of market access.

China is among the major emitters that have yet to submit a new climate target. It has pledged to become carbon-neutral by 2060 and stop increasing its emissions before 2030, although it has not pinned down a date by which its emissions will peak.