More than 50 world leaders are gathering in Paris for a summit that President Emmanuel Macron hopes will give new momentum to the fight against global warming, despite US President Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris climate accord.

Some 3,100 security personnel are fanned out around Paris for Tuesday’s One Planet Summit, including extra patrol boats along the river Seine. Macron will accompany the visiting leaders to the summit site on a river island by boat.

Sean Penn, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Elon Musk are among prominent figures joining the world leaders at the summit, which marks the second anniversary of the Paris accord.

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US President Donald Trump, who has called climate change a “hoax”, announced in June that the United States would pull out of the Paris pact, which had taken nearly 200 nations more than two decades to negotiate.

The Trump administration said it was not going fulfil US climate finance commitments, including an outstanding $2 billion out of $3 billion (€1.7 billion out of €2.5 billion) it had pledged towards the Green Climate Fund.

“The missing piece of the jigsaw is the funding to help the world’s poorer countries access clean energy so they don’t follow the fossil fuel-powered path of the rich world … This is the missing piece that the One Planet Summit needs to begin to put into place,” said Mohamed Adow of Christian Aid, which represents poor country interests at the UN climate forum. (France24)