EU must fill gap in funding left by US in Paris Agreement – Macron

French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during the 23rd Conference of the Parties (COP) climate talks in Bonn, Germany, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017. World leaders arrive at the global climate talks in Germany on Wednesday to give the negotiations a boost going into the final stretch. (Photo by MARTIN MEISSNER / AP)

BONN, Germany — “I challenge Europe to fill the gap left by the US in funding climate science,” French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday during his speech to the plenary of COP 23 in Bonn, Germany.

World leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, are currently engaged in high-level climate talks for the creation of a road map for the implementation of the Paris Agreement-a global climate accord that seeks to keep global temperatures from rising well below 2°C.

Macron posed the challenge to European leaders following the decision of US President Donald Trump to withdraw from the climate treaty.

Macron singled out the need for funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN body that oversees scientific research and study on climate change.

The French President pledged that France would donate to the body. He did not give a specific amount but assured the world that finance for the IPCC would be guaranteed by 2018.

But Teresa Solana Mendez de Vigo, a Spanish delegate, said during an open meeting that the EU’s position was that it would not fill the gap left by anyone.

The EU encourages other countries to contribute to the gap left by the US, she added. /atm