Macron silenced to make way for Putin in awkward technical glitch at Biden’s climate summit

French president resumed address following US apology for technical issue

A video address to world leaders by French President Emmanuel Macron was cut off to make way for Russian President Vladimir Putin so he could make his own address, in an awkward technical glitch during the US leaders’ summit on climate.

The French president was in mid-flow when the live feed moved over to Mr Putin, who also looked surprised at the sudden change.

Following Mr Putin’s statement, during which he said Russia was serious about tackling the climate crisis, Antony Blinken the US secretary of state, the chair of the summit, apologised for a “technical issue”, and returned the floor to Mr Macron.

The conference also started with other glitches which added a short delay to the sound on US Vice President Kamala Harris’s opening address, resulting in it sounding like she was speaking from the bottom of a metal canyon.

Mr Putin said Russia is “genuinely interested” in international cooperation to solve the climate crisis, and claimed the country had halved emissions since the 1990s.

He highlighted the “almost zero” greenhouse gases from nuclear power and said Russia is beginning to pilot projects on carbon pricing and trading.

Mr Macron told leaders they all needed to factor in the environment into the costs of investment and trade and said without doing so there could be no transition to a greener economy.

“Taking action for the climate means regulating, and regulating at an international level. If we don’t set a price for carbon, there will be no transition,” Mr Macron said.