Sleep-deprived and increasingly tense, diplomats and climate negotiators outside Paris yesterday struggled to narrow down a 29-page draft of an unprecedented deal to tackle climate change, but countries remained at odds on critical issues a day before the organizers’ deadline for an agreement.
US Secretary of State John Kerry reached out to two major developing nations — Brazil and India — and is expected to meet other negotiators as US President Barack Obama’s administration works for a deal that reflects its concerns about global warming, but does not require congressional approval.
Climate negotiations continued until about 5am yesterday morning before resuming discussions midmorning, and a new draft accord is expected to be released sometime later today, a French diplomat said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.
The draft released yesterday left major issues unresolved, including the long-term goal of an eventual accord, and which countries should pay to help the most vulnerable nations cope with global warming.
The French organizers of the two-week talks want an agreement by tonight, although UN climate conferences rarely end on time.
This time is different from past talks, because the French organizers pushed countries to set their own emissions targets before the Paris conference, and the US and China, who have clashed over climate in the past, bridged key differences earlier this year.
Another thing that is different this time is the scale of the proposed deal: Ministers from more than 190 countries are trying to craft the first climate accord asking all nations to reduce or slow their emissions. The previous agreement, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, required only rich countries to do so.
“The outlook is positive, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” EU climate delegation head Elina Bardram said.
Chinese negotiator Gao Feng (高風) was one of many suggesting the talks would not finish on time.
“Friday or maybe Saturday, I think we will get it,” he said.
Kerry was holding talks at the Le Bourget conference site with the environment ministers from Brazil and India, according to the US Department of State. Brazil and India are among the biggest nations demanding that richer countries pay and do more to reduce carbon emissions.
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