South Korean president leaves for France for UN climate change conference

South Korean President Park Geun-hye left for France Sunday to attend a crucial UN conference on climate change, Yonhap reported.

Park is set to deliver a speech at the leaders' event in Paris on Monday and express South Korea's commitment to actively join global efforts to launch a deal on combating climate change.

The leaders' event -- the opening of the conference -- is designed to build political momentum for negotiations on a new legally binding deal to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It is set to bring together leaders from more than 140 countries, including US President Barack Obama, as well as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

The conference is set to run through Dec. 11 to try to produce a deal that will be applicable to all countries and seeks to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius.

More than 160 countries -- which account for about 90 percent of global emissions -- have put forward climate targets for post-2020.

Park has said responses to climate change should be as viewed as "an opportunity to secure a new growth engine, not a burden."

Also in Paris, Park is set to meet with the head of UNESCO, the UN cultural agency, according to Kim Kyou-hyun, senior presidential secretary for foreign affairs.

The trip will also take Park to Prague for a summit with the leaders of the so-called Visegrad Group countries -- the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia

Source: MENA