US Secretary of State Kerry mocks climate change doubters: their

The statement said that addressing climate change requires a deep transformation of local economic development models.

The aim is to mitigate the adverse effects of global warming, such as flooding, storm surges, rising sea levels and droughts.

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.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, presiding over the talks, has charged the world’s ministers to deliver a draft accord by Wednesday, setting out clear options on the divisive issues.

“It will be an important step, I hope, but not yet the final result”, he said.

This week, diplomats from almost every nation on Earth are huddled in Paris to finalize a sweeping global agreement to limit greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

Last week in Paris, Obama said that other parts of the agreement should be binding, including a requirement that countries periodically revisit and possibly strengthen their carbon reduction targets.

“You are finally starting to see the really hard bargaining and arguing that has to happen”.

The US argument is that this will allow otherwise reluctant countries to make specific emissions pledges if they know they won’t be sanctioned for missing their targets. “These lobbyists have come to Paris to sabotage a global deal for ambitious climate action”, an activist who helped to organize the protest told The New York Times.

“Let’s achieve a legally-binding agreement”.

The EU hailed a “breakthrough” on Tuesday after signing a pact with 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, piling pressure on China and India to agree to their demands.

Indian Environment, Forests and Climate Change Minister Prakash Javadekar, who is heading the country’s delegation, here did not seem to be too upbeat about an agreement.

“The Paris agreement is going to be a reality”, declared Brazil’s environment minister, Izabella Teixeira. Those plans, when taken together, the United Nations calculates, will cap warming at 2.7 degrees above pre-industrial levels. Another challenge will be determining how much money the advanced economies will provide to these emerging powers to finance their costs of mitigation and adaptation.

“It would mean we have concluded a low-level, minimalist treaty and that is not our goal”, she said. “There is no issue where we are blocked”.

Another potential deal-buster is money.

Instead, US and other countries have been pushing for a provision that will also ask developing countries to contribute to climate finance in a “voluntary” manner.

Ms Rudd will be involved in a frantic period of “shuttle diplomacy”, attending meetings and acting as a go-between, finding out what each country wants, what they are prepared to compromise on and what they can offer until hopefully a compromise can be found between the competing needs of 192 nations. “That is, it takes the climate a long time to adjust completely to what we add to the atmosphere”.

“We’ve been absorbing the punches and we will continue to receive these punches as the planet continues to warm”.

More than 160 countries, responsible for around 90 percent of global emissions, have announced climate targets ahead of the conference.

An “energy revolution” is needed to change the momentum, U.S. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said today. United States negotiators, while repeatedly saying that developed countries will fulfil their commitments in the post-2020 period, have shied away from mentioning the $ 100 billion figure. “We couldn’t say that 1.5 degrees is safe”.