France's Hollande promises Philippine storm survivors a climate deal

[February 27, 2015]  By Roli Ng

GUIUAN, Philippines (Reuters) - French President Francois Hollande on Friday met victims of the biggest-ever typhoon to make landfall and promised them he would secure an international agreement to limit climate change.

Hollande toured the Philippine fishing town of Guiuan in the east of the archipelago where, in 2013, Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people.

"I promise you, we'll succeed in France because we must obtain agreement," Hollande told a crowd at a town school, referring to a U.N. conference on climate change late this year in Paris.

The goal of the conference is a legally binding, global agreement on climate change, to keep a rise of global temperatures to a minimum to prevent sea level rise, the melting of ice caps and severe weather.

"The world will act for you ... we want success in Paris," Hollande said.

Typhoon Haiyan caused extensive destruction and left about a million people homeless. Thousands are still living in tents and other shelters.

Climate scientists have cautioned against blaming individual storms such as Haiyan on climate change. But they agree that storms are likely to become more intense.

Tropical storms - called cyclones, hurricanes and typhoons, depending on where they strike - are a hard riddle for scientists to solve but the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says it is "more likely than not" that storms will increase in intensity in the coming century.

Hollande has championed the cause of climate change and helping poor countries adapt to global warming and to develop renewable energy.

He has warned the failure to address global warming could lead to war.

Hollande, the first French leader to visit the Philippines since 1947, spent about an hour in Guiuan, walking around the town and chatting to fishermen.

France would provide the Philippines with about 50 million euros ($56 million) for projects to prevent weather-induced disasters, he announced.

(Additional reporting by Erik de Castro; Writing By Manuel Mogato; Editing by Robert Birsel)

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