Another day for climate change
Print Edition
EFFORTS to craft a global accord to combat climate change stumbled early yesterday after a “hard night” of talks, forcing host nation France to extend the UN summit by a day to overcome stubborn divisions.
After revealing a new draft treaty that removed some main points of contention, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that a final text would now be presented to nearly 200 nations for review today and not yesterday as he had hoped.
While annual UN climate meetings almost always run into overtime, the abrupt announcement came as some officials and observers said that discussions in the small hours had not run as smoothly as hoped. The talks had been due to end yesterday.
As at the outset two weeks ago, some nations remain at odds over issues such as how to balance actions by rich and poor to limit greenhouse gases, and also the long-term goals of any agreement to limit emissions that are warming the earth.
One source said “the night was very hard.”
“Major countries have entrenched behind their red lines instead of advancing on compromise,” said Matthieu Orphelin, spokesman for the Nicolas Hulot Foundation.
Fabius, speaking on French BFMTV, kept a positive tone: “But the atmosphere is good, things are positive, things are going in the right direction.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Barack Obama exchanged views on the climate talks, China-US relations and other major international issues of common concern yesterday.
During a telephone conversation, Xi recalled that during their meeting in Paris at the start of the talks, the two leaders had an in-depth exchange of views on China-US relations and issues of common concern, reaching much new consensus.
He said that with the approach of a new year, both sides faced important development opportunities which were not without their challenges. Maintaining sustained, healthy and stable development of China-US relations was in the interest of both sides, Xi said.
He hoped the US would work with China to promote practical exchanges and cooperation in various fields, managing differences and sensitive issues constructively to ensure that relations develop toward a new model of major-country relationship.
Obama described his meeting with Xi in Paris as successful. The two sides often coordinated on major international and regional issues, which was of important and positive significance to the development of relations, he said.
The US side was willing to maintain close coordination with China to promote the achievement of success at the Paris talks, Obama added.
Xi said that frequent communication between the two leaders sent a positive signal to the international community that China and the US were strengthening cooperation in the field of climate change.
Xi said that as negotiations in the Paris climate conference reach a conclusion, China and the US need to work with all parties to ensure the climate conference will reach an agreement as scheduled and in the interests of the entire international community.
The latest draft from the Paris talks points to a compromise on the once-formidable divide over how ambitious the deal should be in trying to control the rise in the earth’s surface temperature. It indicates apparent agreement on seeking a more ambitious goal to restrain the rise in temperatures to less than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
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