COP21

French listening practice with side-by-side translation

  Listening comprehension: See the links at the bottom for lessons related to the phrases in italics.

Protocole et grands discours : Résumé de la 1re journée de la COP21 Protocol and big speeches: Summary of the first day of COP21
Protocole et grands discours : La journĂ©e d’ouverture de la COP21 a vu le prĂ©sident François Hollande accueillir sur le site du Bourget les 150 chefs d’État et de gouvernement prĂ©sents pour cette grande confĂ©rence sur le climat.
Translation

Protocol and big speeches: The opening day of COP21 saw President François Hollande welcome the 150 heads of state and government present for this big climate conference to the le Bourget site.

[collapse]
Il a ensuite appelĂ© Ă  sauver l’humanitĂ© grâce Ă  un accord contraignant et ambitieux. Son ministre des affaires Ă©trangères, Laurent Fabius, qui a aussi la casquette de prĂ©sident de la COP21, a quant Ă  lui plusieurs fois rĂ©pĂ©tĂ© qu’il n’y avait que 11 petits jours pour faire un grand pas en avant.
Translation

He then appealed to save humanity with a strict and ambitious agreement. His minister of foreign affairs, Laurent Fabius, who is also serving as president of COP21, repeated several times that there were only 11 short days to take a big step forward.

[collapse]
Ensuite, tous les chefs d’État et de gouvernement se sont succĂ©dĂ© pour dĂ©cliner chacun Ă  leur manière le sentiment d’urgence qui les habite et souligner Ă  quel point leur pays avait dĂ©jĂ  fait beaucoup pour prĂ©server l’environnement. Ă€ les entendre, on pouvait presque se demander comment on aurait Ă©tĂ© encore lĂ  Ă  chercher Ă  rester sous le seuil d’une hausse de deux pour cent de la tempĂ©rature mondiale.
Translation

Next, all the heads of state and government followed one another to enumerate, each in their own way, the sense of urgency they feel and to stress how much their countries had already done to save the environment. To hear them, you could almost wonder how they could still be here trying to stay under the threshold of a two percent increase in the world’s temperature.

[collapse]
Heureusement que Barack Obama Ă©tait lĂ  pour endosser une partie de la faute. Le prĂ©sident des États-Unis a reconnu que son pays n’Ă©tait pas Ă©tranger au phĂ©nomène de rechauffement climatique.
Translation

Fortunately Barack Obama was there to shoulder some of the blame. The US president acknowledged that his country is no stranger to the global warming phenomenon.

[collapse]
Un mea culpa que la Chine n’a quant Ă  elle pas fait, mĂŞme si le pays est devenu aujourd’hui le plus grand pollueur de la planète. Xi Jinping a prĂ©fĂ©rĂ© revĂŞtir les habits de chef de file des pays en voie de dĂ©veloppement en appelant les nations dites « riches » Ă  en faire plus.
Translation

A mea culpa that China didn’t make, though the coutnry has become the biggest polluter on the planet. Xi Jinping instead put "leader of a developing country" clothes back on while calling for so-called "rich" countries to do more.

[collapse]
Video courtesy of France 24. Translation by LKL

  Listening comprehension

Expressions

Vocabulary

Grammar

More listening

Questions about French?

 Visit the Progress with Lawless French Q+A forum to get help from native French speakers and fellow learners.

More Lawless French

 Subscribe to my twice-weekly newsletter.

Support Lawless French

  This free website is created with love and a great deal of work.

If you love it, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation.

Your support is entirely optional but tremendously appreciated.

Leave a Reply