Paris climate conference extended by a day

Paris, Dec 11: The climate conference here has been extended by another day, not for the first time at the conference of parties (CoP) seeking to rrow the difference between the developed and developing tions. After what is being called a “hard night of negotiations”, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said a fil text would be presented on Saturday to overcome some of the divisions which still were ruling among parties. “We are in the fil mode of what separates us from an ambitious, just and durable accord which the world awaits,” Fabius told the media after spending much of the night convincing parties to enter into a fil give and take on climate decisions. Fabius also revealed a second draft text, running into 27 pages, two pages less than the first one released on Wednesday, which saw some rrowing down of positions between the developed and developing countries.  

The sticking points still seem to be on how much, and at what level, the developing countries must make the changes to tackle climate change. Also, how much money the developed world will commit to help the developing countries pay for the changes that would be required.

The accord aims to limit the global rise in temperature to less than 2 degrees centigrade since industrialisation started in the late 19th century. The text also talks about setting up a mechanism through the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body, to find out what would be needed to limit this cap to 1.5 degrees as demanded by island states.

The IPCC says that unless temperature rise — a direct result of human use of fossil fuels — was capped, catastrophic climate events were likely to take place in the next hundred years or so. The globe has warmed 0.8 degrees since industrialisation. The negotiators from 196 countries sat through the nights, with representatives of Group of 77 developing countries and Chi, plus island tions and least developed countries doing some hard bargaining with the Western world led by the US. So far, it’s not clear if agreement can be reached even on Saturday on questions of money flow to the green fund or transfer of technology from the developed world to developing world to combat climate change. Prakash Javadekar, the Indian minister of state for environment, forests and climate change, has said they were willing to agree as long as a “just and equitable” climate agreement was arrived at accepting the right of developing countries to grow. (IANS)

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