Negotiators in final stretch of Paris global climate talks

“It is extremely important that the Paris COP21 conference results in a strong commitment to tackle climate change”.

Leaders at a major climate change conference in Paris released what they called the “final draft” of an agreement to address global warming Saturday after an all-night negotiating session. “The world hold its breath and counts on you”, Fabius stressed.

Delegates from the EU, South Africa and Jordan said Saturday they had not seen the latest draft yet, but expressed hope that an agreement is possible.

A deal in Paris would mark a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama, who has warned not to “condemn our children to a planet beyond their capacity to repair”.

Ministers from more than 190 countries have been engaged in “shuttle diplomacy” and diplomatic wrangling to find common ground for the agreement, which aims to limit global temperature rises to avoid risky climate change. The target of well below 2 degrees Celsius and even more ambitious 1.5 degrees Celsius may not be acceptable to developing countries like India and China which prefer a ceiling of 2 degrees Celsius that would allow them to burn fuels like coal for a longer period.

With almost 200 countries being represented at the convention and numerous low-lying island nations uniting to call for greater action from developed economies, there is absolutely no chance that any one country will get all their demands ratified.

Saudi Arabia and other nations resisted, saying there was insufficient research to support a tougher target and that setting too ambitious a figure could endanger food security.

Fabius also said the text would be legally binding and sets five-year reviews of national plans for curbing global warming. That level of warming is measured as the average temperature increase since the industrial revolution.

As negotiations wore on, the options grew vaguer.

Current greenhouse-gas emissions agreements will expire in 2020.

In the Paris agreement, the world agreed to eliminate net human-caused greenhouse gases by the second half of the century – a goal that would be achieved by a combination of reducing emissions and increasing capacity of natural carbon sinks like forests that remove those gases from the atmosphere.

The agreement includes a long-term goal of holding global temperature rise “well below” 2°C (3.6°F) by 2100 and recognizes a maximum temperature rise of below 1.5°C (2.7°F) as an ideal goal. Climate change impacts our health, our economy and as an island threatens our coasts through rising sea levels.

The text reserves an increased role of adaptation while recognises the need for loss and damage, he said.

AD Deputy Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo spoke about the effects on climate change, not least on Malta. The document specifies that it “does not involve or provide any basis for any liability or compensation” for countries that are damaged by climate change.

Many countries actually submitted their new plans before COP21 started last month – but those pledges aren’t enough to keep warming below the 2 degrees target.

Negotiators knew going in there would have to be a system for “ratcheting up” national measures, but how and when to do that has been a sticking point throughout. “It will be a major leap for mankind”.

“What text? We’re still waiting”, Sopoaga said walking out of the meeting where a draft deal was announced by French officials Saturday.

The draft legal text contains no explicit mention of carbon markets, nor of the possibility of carbon penalties for aviation and shipping. The Copenhagen text included aviation and shipping emissions, that together are as large as the emissions of the United Kingdom and Germany combined, but they are not mentioned in the Paris text, ” Anderson said. Developed nations argue that many of these countries, such as Singapore and South Korea, have since become wealthy and should do more. In the formal Agreement countries will convene in 2023 a “global stocktake” to assess how they are doing with regard to cutting emissions, adapting to climate change, and fulfilling their financial pledges.