Hard bargaining as climate talks near conclusion
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MINISTERS tasked with securing a historic climate-saving pact in Paris sought to settle the most volatile flashpoints yesterday, such as mustering hundreds of billions of dollars to help the developing world.
The UN talks have been billed as the last chance to avert the worst consequences of global warming — deadly drought, floods and storms, and rising seas that will engulf islands and densely populated coastlines.
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.
Nations remain divided over how to give finance for developing nations to cope with global warming; how far to limit planetary overheating; how to share the burden between rich and poor nations; and how to review progress in slashing greenhouse gases.
“They are finally doing the dirty work of negotiating, which is very hard,” said Jennifer Morgan, global climate analyst at the Washington-based World Resources Institute, who is an observer at the talks.
“You are finally starting to see the really hard bargaining and arguing that has to happen. It is a good thing, because otherwise they would still be standing their positions.”
Observers said a new confidence was emerging in Paris, a hopeful sign six years after the spectacular failure of the last attempt to reach a global deal, which collapsed in Copenhagen, fractured by distrust between rich and poor countries.
“Those of us who have been watching these for a long time think there has been a spirit of cooperation,” Greenpeace political adviser Ruth Davis told journalists.
“But cooperation has to manifest itself in something real and meaningful,” said Davis, who described the complex negotiations as being akin to a 12-dimensional Rubik’s Cube.
Taking effect in 2020, the Paris accord would seek to limit emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases driven by coal, oil and gas — the backbone of the world’s energy supply today.
The goal is to limit global warming to under 2 degrees Celsius from pre-Industrial Revolution levels.
Negotiations are making headway on every front, said France’s top negotiator Laurence Tubiana. “We are advancing on everything,” she said. “There is no issue where we are blocked. None.”
In 2009, rich countries promised to muster US$100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing nations make the costly shift to clean energy, and to cope with the impact of global warming.
But how the pledged funds will be raised remains unclear — and developing countries are pushing for a promise that the amount will be ramped up beyond 2020.
Meanwhile, rich nations are insisting that developing giants work harder to tackle their greenhouse gases, noting that much of the world’s future emissions growth will come from their fast-growing economies.
Small island states at risk of being swamped in a warmer world are also part of a big coalition of vulnerable nations pressing for a more ambitious accord of limiting warming to less than 1.5 degrees.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, presiding over the talks, wants a draft accord by today, setting out clear options on the divisive issues.
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