Barack Obama telephones Narendra Modi to clinch climate deal

Preside Barack Obama has called Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he works to spur a successful conclusion to the climate talks outside Paris.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters in Washington that the US President is closely following the developments in Paris where more than 180 countries are trying to thrash a deal on climate change. He anticipates that Obama will be calling other world leaders in the coming days. With developing countries arguing richer nations are in “debt” to them for the impact climate change is having.

Poorer and developing countries maintain that they are less able to deal with climate change and bear less responsibility for it than industrialised nations that have heavily polluted for decades.

“Though we have some tough issues in the next few days to resolve, I am confident that we have the ability to do it”, USA secretary of state John Kerry said on the sidelines of the conference at Le Bourget on the northern outskirts of Paris.

Earnest did not elaborate about Tuesday’s call, but said that the U.S. has played a leading role in securing emissions commitments from other nations and that the administration is optimistic about the outcome of the climate conference.

But India has also formed a Solar Alliance of 120 countries and promised to ramp up renewables to reduce coal usage.

India’s environment minister Prakash Javadekar, who was present in the joint briefing made by the BASIC group, said it would depend on the “collective wisdom” of the parties (countries) whether the deal would come in next 80 hours or 100 hours. The goal is to limit global warming to under two degrees Celsius from pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

“It’s for the developed world to give money and technical support, and it’s for the developing countries to receive”, Javadekar said adding that it’s because “they have it” and the developing countries are the “have nots”.

“Both leaders underscored their strong commitment to address issues related to climate change being discussed in the Paris conference through constructive engagement, without impeding the progress of developing countries”, the release said.

Nevertheless, he said, countries most at risk could accept a deal with 2C as the formal goal, as long as it makes a reference to the lower 1.5C threshold. This is unlikely to happen as developing countries have said that fossil-fuel based growth for them is imperative till alternative methods are available.

Fabius is determined. “I intend to muster the experience of my entire life to the service of success for next Friday”, he said at the weekend.

Rich countries adamantly do not want the possibility of liability and compensation obligations for the effects of climate change.

“We need, as responsible leaders, to take account of science; not some cockamamie ideological hypothetical, but science”. “We are advancing on everything”, she said. They are acting to fight nore areas of the world being turned to desert and to support adaptation to climate change.