World leaders to vote on global climate change plan

People visit the American display at COP21, the United Nations conference on climate change at Le Bourget.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is expected to return to marathon global climate negotiations after staying at the conference site into the wee hours of the morning.

If successful, it will be a powerful symbol to world citizens and a signal to investors – for the first time in more than two decades, the world will have a common vision for cutting back on the greenhouse gas emissions blamed for overheating the planet, and a roadmap for ending two centuries of fossil fuel dominance.

The final draft of an global climate change deal is set to be presented within hours, after countries worked through the night in Paris to secure agreement on it. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to be publicly named discussing the negotiations.

But the biggest disputes over fairness and finance remained potential deal-breakers in a draft accord released on Thursday, with nations holding often diametrically opposing views. He said he’s “hopeful” for an accord and has been working behind the scenes to reach compromises.

But the level of ambition in the final deal remains one of the key issues, according to French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who is chairing the talks which he said have nearly reached the “end of the road”.

“We are pretty much there”, Egyptian Environment Minister Khaled Fahmy, the chairman of a bloc of African countries, told The Associated Press late Friday.

The latest text refers to the $100 billion as a floor, potentially triggering a last-minute backlash from the United States and other developed nations fearful of being forced to sign a blank cheque.

Five top European scientists said Friday those goals are great and scientifically valid – but the rest of the agreement doesn’t come close to achieving them and in some ways even goes backward.

Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga of the Pacific island nation of Tuvalu was also upbeat.

In Paris, the Chinese delegation’s deputy chief Liu Zhenmin said he was “quite confident” a deal would be sealed on Saturday.

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. “I’m optimistic”, Fabius told reporters in the early afternoon, flanked by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Saudi Arabia said it would resist a new 27-page draft text calling for a rise in global temperatures to be limited to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels – a plan that it fears could jeopardize oil production. Poor low-lying nations and environmental groups have pushed to keep the 1.5 degrees in the text.

“Any country that holds out and wrecks the deal here is going to be regarded as a pariah in many quarters and I doubt any will really want to put itself in that position”, said Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence think-tank.

India hit back at developed countries that have been accusing it of refusing to yield ground on emissions and funding, saying they were not showing flexibility and posing roadblocks for a comprehensive climate deal, deadline for which was extended by a day on Friday.