Sleepless climate negotiators hone in on deal

The draft is “still too heavy”.

The two-week Paris conference is meant to conclude on Friday with a new global agreement on climate change, to put in place a long-term process to cut and ultimately eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.

The draft released Wednesday left major issues unresolved. It is not enough across the board.

Germany’s Environment Minister, Barbara Hendricks, called for strong recognition of the 1.5 degree target in the final deal. “There will be ongoing conversations with Albertans on ensuring that low and middle-income working families will be insulated from any negative effects”.

Climate change is a common challenge for the current human society.

French President Francois Hollande said Thursday there were “still difficulties” in the climate talks, especially on financing.

De Brum, however, says “it has to fly… there has to be commitment from everyone”.

Kerry said deniers are “so out of touch with science that they believe rising sea levels don’t matter, because in their view, the extra water will just spill over the sides of a flat Earth”. Global average surface temperatures have already risen by about 1.0C (1.8F).

“On these issues I ask you to scale up your consultations to speedily come to compromise solutions”, Laurent Fabius, president of the COP21, said, addressing the conference.

“It (draft text) is shorter than the previous version of 48 pages”. We are not suggesting that we remain stuck to the past. But at this stage there are many points of departure.

“There will be another draft today where more square brackets will be removed but, most importantly, we need more consultations with our colleagues”, said Gao Feng, one of the Chinese negotiators.

Activists gather next to a mini Eiffel Tower after a sit-in protest to denounce a draft text released at the climate conference.

A woman takes a picture of a globe at the COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 in Le Bourget, north of Paris.

Small island nations demanded firmer rich country promises to help cope with future damage from rising seas and rougher storms.

Kerry also reflected on his own decades-long attention to climate policy and his many frustrations on the issue.

The US is also insisting on developing but “capable” countries like India and China to accept more responsibility.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks were ongoing, the negotiator said that the alliance is expected to announce common positions on crunch issues later Wednesday.

One of the key things the coalition wants is the five-year review and ratchet mechanism. “There is no indication of scaling up of finance nor a clear roadmap”, he said during a negotiating session. But negotiators have struggled mightily to find a magic formula that is clear enough to signal the need to purge fossil fuels from the world economy but also broad enough to bridge the national interests of oil exporters, emerging giants, rich nations and the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries. “That would be a tremendous sign of progress”, he told The Associated Press in an interview on the sidelines of the Paris climate talks. “I’m more eager to rely on people like this… than to rely on governments and industry”.

Canada, which accounts for about 1.6 per cent of global GHGs, has more than 300 delegates at the conference – more than twice the US delegation.

Explained: What is climate change? That was deleted from the latest draft.

“Our officials are in contact with federal officials”, she said.

Progress has been made, though, in the 10 days of negotiations so far. Much work is needed to reach a point of convergence. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change.

Julie-Anne Richards, an expert with the Climate Justice Programme, said this amounted to “creating a bogeyman that doesn’t exist”. The talks are scheduled to wrap up Friday night.

Having shown high ambitions for the post-2020 period in their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), the BASIC countries urged “developed countries to take the lead by committing and implementing ambitious emission reduction targets and providing enhanced financial resources, technology development and transfer and capacity-building support to developing countries”.