"China and France, within the framework of the preparation of [the Fifteenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity] COP15, which will take place in China ... will be cooperating with each other strongly. And we believe that all of the actors will be aligned with us," Le Drian said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan's Osaka.
Meanwhile, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said he had held "very successful" talks on climate change with his French counterpart, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan's Osaka.
"We have just concluded a very successful trilateral meeting on climate change … We had sincere and in-depth exchanges on tackling climate change and reached even more common ground," Wang told reporters.
He has also called on other countries to fully meet their commitments under the Paris climate deal.
"All countries must remain firm in their confidence, step up to the plate, and deliver on the commitments in the Paris agreement to the full extent," Wang said on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan's Osaka.
"We must strengthen our action, and this is an immediate priority. We believe climate change is posing an imminent threat, and all countries must seize the moment and mobilize all resources at their disposal to strengthen their actions in the run-up to 2020. We must combine the efforts to tackle climate change and those to develop the economy and speed up the transition to green and non-carbon development for the sake of sustainable development," the top diplomat added.
The foreign minister also urged the international community to handle climate change collectively, saying it was a "global challenge."
The Paris climate deal, created within the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, went into force on November 4, 2016. It has been ratified by 184 of the 197 parties to the accord. The deal aims at keeping the increase in average global temperature at below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels by means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Previously, US President Donald Trump announced that the United States, one of the countries producing the largest amount of carbon emissions in the world, would be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change with Washington formally notifying the United Nations of its intention on August 4, 2017. However, the country cannot officially exit the accord until November 4, 2020.
