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| Paris climate talks: deal in view but negotiations likely to go into overtime | Paris climate talks: deal in view but negotiations likely to go into overtime |
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| Governments are moving closer to a strong climate change deal but have stumbled in translating political goodwill into the dry language of diplomatic agreements, according to Izabella Teixeira, Brazil’s environment minister. | Governments are moving closer to a strong climate change deal but have stumbled in translating political goodwill into the dry language of diplomatic agreements, according to Izabella Teixeira, Brazil’s environment minister. |
| Despite positive signs that a deal is there to be done, many negotiators were predicting that the talks would not finish on time on Friday evening but would drag on into the weekend. | Despite positive signs that a deal is there to be done, many negotiators were predicting that the talks would not finish on time on Friday evening but would drag on into the weekend. |
| With an agreement in sight to keep temperature rises in check and avoid dangerous global warming after more than 20 years of rollercoaster diplomacy, the Paris climate meeting has entered an intensive phase. | |
| Negotiators met overnight and into the dawn hours on Thursday, with the French hosts shuttling between key players among the 196 countries trying to find common ground. | Negotiators met overnight and into the dawn hours on Thursday, with the French hosts shuttling between key players among the 196 countries trying to find common ground. |
| Related: The six key road blocks at the UN climate talks in Paris | Related: The six key road blocks at the UN climate talks in Paris |
| Teixeira said she was confident countries would eventually arrive at an agreement strong enough to avoid dangerous climate change. | Teixeira said she was confident countries would eventually arrive at an agreement strong enough to avoid dangerous climate change. |
| “The agreement is done at the political level,” she said. “Everyone knows: OK, we can do this. What is not done yet is the language: how we can translate this common understanding about the next steps, and the progress to a flexible and transparent process, from political language into agreement language. This is the challenge we have today.” | |
| The deal taking shape in Paris has yet to assume its final form, but a 29-page draft released by the French hosts included a high aspirational goal of limiting warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. The target – though an extreme long shot given that the world has already warmed nearly 1C – was a key demand of low-lying and vulnerable countries, which would be drowned at the 2C internationally agreed target. | |
| The Climate Vulnerable Forum, a bloc of vulnerable countries, said 113 countries now support the 1.5C goal including industrialised countries such as the US, Canada, France and Germany as well as the Holy See. | |
| “Over the last few days what I have seen is that we are getting more support to have 1.5C reflected in the agreement,” said Thoriq Ibrahim, the Maldives environment minister. “The bigger countries had not thought about it earlier but I think because all the small island states have been saying: ‘This is what is happening to us. Recently we have been getting into so many disasters’, I think that is one of the reasons bigger countries are looking at it.” | |
| He said he was upbeat about the prospects for a strong deal. | He said he was upbeat about the prospects for a strong deal. |
| Laurent Fabius, the French foreign minister, and other officials embarked on a bout of intense shuttle diplomacy, meeting key representatives of countries individually and in small groups to try to bridge the gaps between the various negotiating blocs. Negotiators also met in small informal group huddles, or “indabas” as they are known in the climate negotiations. | |
| Related: Losing paradise: the people displaced by atomic bombs, and now climate change | Related: Losing paradise: the people displaced by atomic bombs, and now climate change |
| John Kerry, the US secretary of state, also played a hands-on role, meeting his Indian, Brazilian and Malaysian counterparts to try to win them over to a deal. He too said negotiators were searching for the right language for the text. | |
| “We feel very good about the conversation we’ve just had,” said Kerry. “We need to work on language, and that is what most of today and tonight will be.” | |
| However, countries still struggled to deal with the most vexing problem of these talks – acknowledging the vastly different economic histories of industrialised and developing countries and their respective responsibility for climate change. | However, countries still struggled to deal with the most vexing problem of these talks – acknowledging the vastly different economic histories of industrialised and developing countries and their respective responsibility for climate change. |
| “If you can untie differentiation then the other things can fall into place,” said Elliot Diringer, who follows the talks for the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions. | |
| There were also strong challenges in reaching an agreement that would satisfy rich countries’ demands for transparency about emissions cuts and financing and developing countries’ need for finance to move to green energy and improve infrastructure. | There were also strong challenges in reaching an agreement that would satisfy rich countries’ demands for transparency about emissions cuts and financing and developing countries’ need for finance to move to green energy and improve infrastructure. |
| Finding the exact language to unknot those problems as well as satisfy lawyers working for 196 countries – each with different economies and exposures to climate change – would be another challenge. | Finding the exact language to unknot those problems as well as satisfy lawyers working for 196 countries – each with different economies and exposures to climate change – would be another challenge. |
| Last year’s meeting in Lima ran more than 36 hours into overtime – and negotiators were essentially working on a document intended mainly as a holding position. This time around negotiators are seeking a durable agreement that would start in 2020 and be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that countries are meeting their emissions-cutting goals through the coming decades into the middle of the century and beyond. | Last year’s meeting in Lima ran more than 36 hours into overtime – and negotiators were essentially working on a document intended mainly as a holding position. This time around negotiators are seeking a durable agreement that would start in 2020 and be reviewed at regular intervals to ensure that countries are meeting their emissions-cutting goals through the coming decades into the middle of the century and beyond. |
| Still Teixeira remained upbeat. “We have positive and proactive behaviour to find a political agreement here. What we need is the the right words to make the countries comfortable and this is not easy because it is carbon diplomacy,” she said. “But I am confident.” | Still Teixeira remained upbeat. “We have positive and proactive behaviour to find a political agreement here. What we need is the the right words to make the countries comfortable and this is not easy because it is carbon diplomacy,” she said. “But I am confident.” |