Macron meets climate activists on sidelines of COP27

(7 Nov 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
AGENCY POOL
Sharm El Sheikh - 7 November 2022
1. Various of meeting between French President Emmanuel Macron and young climate change activists
2. SOUNDBITE (French) Andy Costa, Africa Bicycle Ambassador from Ivory Coast:
"What impacts us the most today (in Africa) is climate change. The whole world is convinced that Africa is the continent of the future. But we, as young African leaders, we believe that this responsibility, which is great, can only have a positive impact if we are trained and if our human capital is developed."
3. Macron during meeting  
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Tamarah Mototekema Boussamba, Director General Agridis (agri-food production and distribution), Gabon:
"You know it very well. Africa has a real challenge of food sovereignty and especially food security. But the agricultural sector is really vulnerable to climate change. Mr. President, we have the advance of the desert in some regions, floods in other regions, the increase of temperatures, etc."
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Emmanuel Macron, French President:
"I believe in equitable partnership. The moment we are living with the African continent is a rather difficult one. We can sometimes have the feeling that it is unfair because we are also paying for a lot of our old politics. We have the weight of the past on our shoulders. I have the weakness of thinking that since the speech I made in Ouagadougou five years ago, I have been able to make a difference. We have changed our policy, we are changing our policy, we are accelerating. Sometimes it takes time and I say that with a lot of humility because we say things and then it takes time for things to really change and then there is an image that France can contribute to this. There is also a lot of manipulation and a lot of anti-French sentiment in certain countries. It is largely financed, as we know, by social networks and activists financed by Russia or others. But I also say this for ourselves, because we tend to flagellate ourselves, in a way blame ourselves without looking if the Chinese, the Russians, the Turks are doing much better than the French or others in Africa? They are doing ten times worse than us. Some of them have been colonisers and imperial powers themselves. But simply, we like to hurt ourselves. So I'm not into 'miserabilism' but I'm into saying how we try to change the system faster. I think we can change it even faster by showing that there are results and therefore by being involved on very concrete projects, very local projects, tight partnership."
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Nathan Metenier, UN Youth Advisory Group from France:
"And one of the things that has deeply affected me lately is of course the record profits of fossil fuels. Of course. Shell, Total. It won't have escaped your notice that this tax that has been imposed at the European level only takes, I was told this morning, only 0.2% of these absolutely historic profits that fossil fuel companies have made and the Secretary General of the United Nations has called these profits immoral some time ago, I think you may have heard him."
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Emmanuel Macron, French President:
8. Wide of meeting
STORYLINE:
French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday met with young climate change activists on the sidelines of the UN's summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Participants from Cameroon, Algeria, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Niger, Egypt and France took part in the exchange at COP27.
The activists underlined the urgency for action in Africa and taxation on the profits of energy giants.
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