President Barack Obama spoke with French President François Hollande on Thursday morning, ahead of their meeting at the White House on November 24.
The two world leaders discussed their commitment to fighting ISIS, and Obama expressed condolences on behalf of the U.S. to the loved ones of those killed in last week’s terror attacks in Paris, according to a White House description of the phone call.
Obama still plans to attend the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris, the goal of which is to reach a universal agreement on dealing with global warming.
The conference, which is scheduled to take place from November 30 to December 11, has been a long-standing priority of the Obama administration.
The President addressed the importance of the summit in a speech at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit on Wednesday in Manila, Philippines.
“We have to come together around an ambitious framework to protect the one planet we have while we still can,” Obama said. “An ambitious agreement in Paris will prompt investors to invest in clean energy technologies because they will understand that the world is committed to a low-carbon future.”
Less than two weeks before the crucial global climate summit, NOAA, NASA and other global temperature monitors released data showing that the planet is halfway to two degrees of warming, the much publicized limit of “controllable” climate change.