150 million euros added to 2016 budget for climate change: Sapin

The French government has increased funds dedicated to targeting climate change and development by 150 million euros, through an amendment to the 2016 draft budget, according to Finance Minister Michel Sapin.

French Finance Minister Michel Sapin, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Peruvian Minister of Environment and COP20 President Manuel Pulgar-Vidal offer a joint press conference during the IMF-World Bank annual meetings in Lima, Peru, 9 October 2015 AFP

"There will be an amendment to be tabled which will add 150 million euros in 2016, 100 per cent of which will go towards climate action in grants that will go mainly, if not exclusively, to finance the transition” to renewable energy in developing countries, he told media on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Lima.

French President Francois Hollande made promises at the end of September to the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the annual payments from France dedicated to climate change finance would increase from 3 billion euros to more than 5 billion in 2020.

Hollande also promised that public development aid from France will increase by 4 billion euros but only from 2020.

France’s 2016 budget presented in late September included a decrease of appropriations for both official development assistance and for sustainable development.

The filing of this amendment would be "consistent with the speech of the president," Sapin said.

France, which is hosting climate change talks at the end of this year in Paris, has said that a comprehensive deal cannot be reached if developed countries do not provide 100 billion euros a year from 2020 for poorer countries tackling climate change.

The conference is seen as one of the last chances of a global agreement on the fight against climate change. France hopes to lead to the conclusion of a universal and binding agreement to keep global warming below 2 ° C.