'We're losing the battle'

French President Emmanuel Macron issued a stark warning on climate change at a summit in Paris yesterday, telling world leaders "we are losing the battle" against global warming.

"We're not moving fast enough, that's the problem," Macron told the One Planet Summit called to boost the 2015 Paris climate accord, which US President Donald Trump has renounced.

"We must all act because we will all be held to account," Macron told the gathering on an island in the River Seine, adding: "We cannot say we did not know."

Dozens of world leaders and hundreds of ministers, company bosses, and environmentalists attended the meeting held two years to the day since 195 nations sealed the Paris Agreement on curbing emissions.

The absence of the US was keenly felt at the talks, which focused on boosting investment in green energy and divesting from fossil fuels.

Speaking ahead of the "One Planet" summit Macron said he was hopeful Trump would reconsider his decision to take the US out of the climate pact.

Macron is urging wealthy countries and global companies to commit more funds to combating global warming and help poorer nations deal with the impact of climate change.

Though Macron has said that concrete projects with real financing behind them are lacking, no internationally binding commitments will be announced at the summit.

In focus is how public and private financial institutions can mobilise more money and how investors can pressure corporate giants to shift towards more ecologically friendly strategies.

More than 200 institutional investors with $26 trillion in assets under management yesterday said they would step up pressure on the world's biggest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to combat climate change.

That, they said, would be more effective than threatening to pull the plug on their investments in companies, which include Coal India, Gazprom, Exxon Mobil and China Petroleum & Chemical Corp.