President Nicos Anastasiades on Friday discussed relations between Cyprus and France and developments regarding the Cyprus issue with the former Prime Minister of France and President of the Constitutional Council Laurent Fabius.
The president received Fabius at the President Palace.
Anastasiades briefed the French official on the latest developments on the Cyprus problem and efforts to resume the talks.
The two men also exchanged views about the continuous upgrade in Cyprus-France relations and discussed the ongoing initiative of President Anastasiades regarding the coordination of regional policy on tackling climate change.
Fabius, who played a decisive role in formulating the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, congratulated the president for this initiative and expressed his readiness to contribute.
Anastasiades expressed his deep regret, and that of the people of Cyprus, for the fire in Notre Dame, in Paris, and was informed by Fabius about the next moves for its reconstruction.
Fabius on Friday was awarded the title of Honorary Doctor of the science of Law at the European University Cyprus. Thanking the university for this honour, Fabius called in his speech for a new alliance against climate change.
Rector of the European University Cyprus, Professor Kostas Gouliamos said Fabius was leading voice on environmental issues and one of the most inspirational leaders in Europe and worldwide.
Fabius recalled that a year ago he participated in the International Conference on Climate Change in the Mediterranean and the Middle East that took place in Nicosia organised by the Cyprus Institute. In terms of climate action, he said, the situation today was worse and called for urgent action.
“It is our own responsibility towards present and future generations to save the environment. It is a question of survival”, he warned. “We must take our responsibility seriously.” This means, he said, that the time has come for a sort of a new alliance for our planet.
He said that the past four years have been the hottest years ever recorded and said that Cyprus and the region are particularly concerned, as there could be a possible rise for the end of the century in the region of 5C to 6C.
He underlined that the Cyprus Institute initiative to coordinate efforts of countries of the region to tackle the impact on climate change was very useful.
He also spoke about the climate change impact on health, massive immigration, droughts, floods, saying that acting to prevent environmental destruction is acting to ensure security for present and future generations and it is a question of peace or war.
Fabius noted that the Paris Agreement has created a new momentum, but now it is imperative to apply it, and go further.
The ambition of this global pack for the environment which is currently discussed at the UN, is to give legal force to international major environmental principles, he added.
