UN officials warn of climate disaster if Paris pact fails

Participants attend a panel entitled “Science on a Sphere Presentation” at the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget, north of Paris.

Speaking briefly to the press, he said he is happy to be there to help the conference, as sub-national governments are important in the fight against climate change.

Obama and Rousseff spoke by phone on Monday.

In a statement, the alliance said a Paris agreement must be “legally binding, inclusive and fair” and backed five-year reviews.

The sticking points include how to define the obligations of countries in different stages of development in fighting climate change.

Approval of funding could end up being crucial to the success of the United Nations climate talks ending on Friday.

Ministers tasked with securing a historic climate-saving pact in Paris sought Tuesday to settle the most volatile flashpoints, such as mustering hundreds of billions of dollars to help the developing world.

Kerry says the USA will increase the amount of money it provides for climate adaption grants to $860 million from $430 million by 2020.

The capital is capable of moving wheresignal of the marketplace will ask to go after Paris, he added.

“My hope is the momentum that we are building and good negotiating over the next days will overcome those hurdles and that towards the end of the week, we will be able to come to an agreement”. “And I think everybody wants to try to get this done”.

Australia announced plans for a new initiative to slow the loss of rainforests, preventing the release of billions of tons of carbon dioxide emissions (subscription).

A key compromise by developing countries, including India, on one of the finance provisions is in the offing and it could become the turning point at the Paris climate change conference.

Some are skeptical of the results notably one scientist who offered a $10,000 bet that world emissions will keep rising. We aren’t there yet, even if the Paris gathering is created to identify collective responsibility.

Of the eight ministers appointed, the UK’s Amber Rudd has been charged with overseeing how countries will meet their longstanding goals on emissions and finance up to 2020. At the same time, the USA economy has expanded, proving that economies can grow even as they limit their carbon output.

Meanwhile, rich nations are insisting that developing giants work harder to tackle their greenhouse gases, noting that much of the world’s future emissions growth will come from their fast-growing economies.

European Climate Commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told journalists that developed countries now account for under 35 percent of global emissions.

Poorer countries such as India argue they should not have to shoulder most of the burden for cutting greenhouse gases emissions because it is the richer nations that caused the problem in the first place. Developing nations are resisting attempts by rich countries to fold in existing climate-related spending to reach the $100 billion threshold.

“On the big crunch issues there’s no real sign of progress”, said Tim Gore, climate policy chief at Oxfam, a global charity active on the issue. “We could give up automobiles, ride bicycles, plant trees, and do everything we want to have zero emissions in the U.S. and developing countries will completely wipe out all those gains in a very few years and we will still be in the same predicament we are in today”.

He also said developed countries need to shun their apprehensions about sharing technology with developing countries that need technological support from the developed world.

He said if the world follows through on provisions in a potential agreement, it’s still possible to hold global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius in the long run.

“We must prepare to be working all night and tomorrow – probably continuously”, Fabius said.