Messy midway: Paris draft climate deal ready, long way to go

Thomson ReutersU.S. President Barack Obama speaks during the National Christmas Tree Lighting and Pageant of Peace ceremony in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama defended his remarks about the threat posed by climate change, saying Republicans, including U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump, were “the only people” disputing the gravity of the problem.

The delegates at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), which is taking place in Paris between November 30 and December 11, managed to reach a draft agreement.

“Approximately two-thirds of avoided emissions would have to come from developing worlds”, said Andrew Jones, co-director of the Climate Interactive, a group of scientists that use computer simulations to model how much warming will happen under different pollution cuts offered up in the worldwide negotiations.

At stake is hundreds of billions of dollars that would need to start flowing from rich to developing nations from 2020, under the planned Paris pact.

The Paris accord is meant to be a turning point in the world’s efforts to fight climate change.

American actor Leonardo DiCaprio delivers a speech during a meeting of mayors from around the world at the Paris city hall on Saturday.

Senators Cory Booker of New Jersey, Chris Coons of Delaware, Al Franken of Minnesota, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Brian Schatz of Hawaii, Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Tom Udall of New Mexico and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island are also part of the delegation. “The political will is there from all parties”, China’s chief climate envoy, Su Wei, told reporters. Binding emissions cuts would likely require the Obama administration to send the deal to the Republican-controlled Congress, where it would likely be struck down.

“In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done”, said South Africa’s negotiator, Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, after the draft was adopted.

As the United Nations talks outside Paris reached their midway point, the 48-page draft agreement was sent along to environment and foreign ministers who will work on it next week.

The document includes a wide range of pending disagreements such as the creation of a legally binding limit for the maximum increase in temperature: financing by richer countries of infrastructure needed by poorer countries, as well as discussions around more ambitious targets for the future.

“Major political issues are yet to be resolved”.

Now, negotiators must work out all these kinks before the conference ends in less than a week.

The text also states under the Finance section, which has several suggestions on how funds can be mobilised from developed and other countries, that “appropriate pricing of greenhouse gas emissions in its many forms, is an important instrument for the reorientation of investment and finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low emission and climate resilient economies and societies”.

Poorer countries are demanding finance to pay for the costly shift to renewable technologies, as well as to cope with the impact of climate change.