Paris climate talks: Key disagreements to be negotiated

This work culminated in October with the 2015 Joint Statement by President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and in the US-Pakistan Clean Energy Partnership launched during Prime Minister Sharif’s visit.

“Everybody has committed by now to act on climate change”.

“First, we need an agreement that will limit temperature rise to less than 2 degrees Celsius”.

To reach an elusive deal by a Friday deadline, however, the ministers must first resolve a handful of decades-old disputes that have blocked the path to the first truly universal climate pact.

China’s chief negotiator on Saturday said that any agreement adopted should be legally binding in its entirety, not just parts of it. That contrasts with the some countries’ position that only some parts should be legally binding.

Small island states that risk being swamped in a warmer world have pressed for a more ambitious accord limiting planetary warming to less than 1.5C. “So our sense is we need a modern agreement out of Paris that reflects the realities of the challenge that we face today”, Kerry said.

The key sticking point in all of this remains the degree to which the richest countries, who have been pumping out greenhouse gasses for the longest time and at the highest levels, should bear more responsibility for reducing emissions and provide more money to help others both to reduce emissions (mitigation) and cope with the already-harmful effects of a warming planet (adaptation, loss and damage).

Observers said a new confidence was emerging in Paris, a hopeful sign six years after the spectacular failure of the last attempt to reach a global deal, which collapsed in Copenhagen, fractured by distrust between rich and poor countries.

“Let me be very clear about it: Climate finance is a pure role for the annex one countries”, said Energy Minister Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber of the United Arab Emirates, referring to the countries on the rich list.

Many of them, including China, have done so but they want any Paris deal to clearly state that their contributions would be voluntary, rather than something that should be expected of them.

The top USA diplomat made the remark while speaking at a meeting of the U.N. Foundation on the world’s oceans in Paris, where U.N. climate talks are in their second and final week.

At a side event at the Paris climate talks, Kerry addressed business owners and promised the USA administration was “looking for ways to facilitate (their) choices”. Brazil and India have resisted attempts to establish a long-term goal to phase out carbon emissions during the United Nations climate talks.

He pointed to London, which had serious problems with smog linked to pollution from coal plants in the 20th century.

While smog is a different environmental problem, much of it is blamed on coal-fired power plants and vehicle emissions, which also are key sources of carbon emissions.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon warned negotiators “the clock is ticking towards a climate catastrophe”, and implored them to put aside the rows and soft compromises that have cursed previous UN climate campaigns.

After 11 days of face-to-face negotiations in Paris, a slimmer but still-troubled draft of a global climate agreement was released on Wednesday, revealing countries remain divided over several core issues.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is mocking climate change doubters who downplay the effect of rising sea levels.

He derided global warming deniers as “members of the Flat Earth Society” and warned they would be left on the wrong side of history.

“This $100 billion is a commitment by certain countries that they need to fulfil”, said India’s Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Prakash Javadekar.

The initiative, featuring images by National Geographic and well-known photographers including Sebastiao Salgado, is similar to ones that used the United Nations headquarters and the Empire State Building in NY as backdrops.

Organizers offered the installation as a gift to Francis to mark his Holy Year of Mercy, which began Tuesday.