COP 21 delegates move closer to agreement on curbing global carbon emissions

By Charnika Imbulana in Paris

The draft deal text, which delegates at the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference agreed upon on Saturday, marks a critical point after four years of negotiations and it is hoped that it will form the basis for an agreement to curb global carbon emissions. 

The 48-page document will be discussed by ministers beginning today, taking the final call of the high-level segment of the summit.It will now be left for the ministers to take a final call on the issues during the high-level segment of the summit, beginning Monday. It will now be left for the ministers to take a final call on the issues during the high-level segment of the summit, beginning Monday.

Delegates from 195 countries worked through the night at the conference centre in Le Bourget, conscious of a midday Saturday deadline imposed by the French presidency for this meeting. They were relieved that they had at least reached this point. 

Although they are expected to reach a comprehensive settlement by the end of next week, the French climate ambassador warned that major political differences still needed to be resolved. 

Negotiators started out with a 50-page document and by Friday had reduced it to 36 pages of text. Many countries had reservations about the Friday document so it now contains these concerns added on as an annex – fattening the document to 48 pages. 

Worries have been expressed that far too much has been left to ministers to agree upon and that in an effort to reach a deal too many compromises will be made. 

The document will now be scrutinised by the ministers, who will have to make the political decisions required if the text is to be turned into a long-term agreement. The French presidency will assume the The French presidency will assume the leadership of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) and negotiators of 196 countries will work through five days next week to hopefully sign the agreement on December 11leadership of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) and negotiators of 196 countries will work through five days next week to hopefully sign the agreement on 11 December. 

“This text marks the will of all to reach an agreement. We are not at the end of the road. Major political issues are yet to be resolved,” warned Ambassador Laurence Tubiana. “Nothing has been decided and nothing will be left behind,”  The French presidency will assume the leadership of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) and negotiators of 196 countries will work through five days next week to hopefully sign the agreement on December 11. The French presidency will assume the leadership of the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) and negotiators of 196 countries will work through five days next week to hopefully sign the agreement on December 11.

The document lays out a range of options for ministers on what the long-term goal of the deal should be, as well as the scale and the methods of raising climate finance for poorer nations. 

Among the many tricky issues they will have to deal with is differentiation: many countries are reluctant to change the way that nations are divided into developed and developing based on where they were in 1992 when the UN Convention was signed. Many richer countries want this to change and want a greater number of emerging economies to take on emissions reduction targets and become climate finance donors. South Africa’s climate ambassador struck a note of warning on this issue.

Developing countries angry 

over financial plan 

In draft proposals, less industrialised nations are regarded alongside developed states as donors to poorer countries. Wealthy nations have come under attack from developing countries over proposed financial commitments designed to help them deal with the effects of global warming. The row, which came at the close of the first week, was over the wording of a proposal in the draft text of the potential agreement released on Saturday.

The world’s least developed countries face the greatest threat from climate change as they lack the technology to cut greenhouse gas emissions and their infrastructure is too fragile to cope with extreme weather. 

Under the proposed wording, developing countries with rapidly growing economies such as China will be included alongside established developed nations in being regarded as potential donors to poorer nations.

Rich countries argue that the wording merely reflects current reality as at least eight governments classed as developing have already made ‘climate finance’ contributions that will aid those poorer than them.

Rich nations vs. developing 

world on climate fund

Rich countries say they are on track to beating the $ 100 billion climate fund target but poorer countries criticise the unfair burden of loans and a stark lack of money for adaptation. The problem of the $ 100 billion is not whether it will be reached – it almost certainly will – but how. 

Poor countries at climate talks in Paris have railed against an attempt to water down assistance promised to help them overcome the climate crisis they did not cause. Rich countries are committed to provide $ 100 billion to developing countries by 2020. More than any other, this figure will decide the fate of the talks billed to stop climate change. On Wednesday, US special envoy for climate change Todd Stern told a press conference that donor countries were “well on the way” to beating that pledge. 

And yet the problem of the $ 100 billion is not whether it will be reached – it almost certainly will – but how. There is a gap between how the developing and developed worlds define what counts as adequate climate assistance. For example, Germany and France have promised to increase their 2020 finance to $ 4.47 billion and $ 4 billion respectively. Yet despite the similar numbers, grant-making Germany is seen as a leader and money-lending France a villain.

For developing countries, loans are a particularly problematic aspect of this methodology. Gambia’s environment minister, and representative of the least developed countries group, Pa OusmanJarju said: “We cannot take loans to pay for climate change and take that as climate finance. For us it needs to be grant-based finance because we are not responsible for what is happening.”

Stern’s upbeat analysis was scorned by Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, the South African chair of the Group of 77 and China, who speaks for the poorest 134 countries in the negotiations. She called the OECD report a “mirage” that was being used to create the illusion of a finance process on the right track.

“We had been asking for work to be done by the [UN] standing committee on finance - an institution of the convention. And every time we asked, those requests were refused,” said Mxakato-Diseko.

“The Paris outcome must be under the convention and in accordance with its principles and provisions and must not rewrite or reinterpret its decisions,” said Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko.

“We now need to summon the political will needed to make the hard decisions required for an effective and durable agreement that protects the most vulnerable among us,” said Thoriq Ibrahim of the Maldives and Chair of the Alliance of Small Island States.

‘Common but 

differentiated responsibility’

Susheel Kumar, a senior environment official in India, said: “The language is not in line with the framework convention. It is trying to redraft the convention.”He was referring to the original 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the subsequent Kyoto protocol, which enshrined the doctrine of “common but differentiated responsibility”, by which rich and poor were seen to have different roles. 

The concept has been controversial, because in the past it has been taken to absolve developing countries – even competitors such as China – from the need to cut emissions, enraging conservatives in the US and elsewhere.

Todd Stern, the US special envoy for climate change, said: “There are developing countries moving to being donors. This recognises that there are more advanced developing countries.”

He insisted that no developing country would be obliged to provide financial assistance to those worse off and that providing financial assistance would be entirely voluntary. “Some people have over-reacted to this or read it incorrectly,” he said.

The row may be resolved if appropriate wording can be agreed, but it will not be the end of the wrangling on finance. Around 40,000 people from all over the world are participating in the two weeks of talking in one form or another. There are huge numbers of government delegates, mainly civil servants. These groupings range in size from two-person teams to those of several hundred in the case of wealthier nations. 

There are a lot of lobbyists and representatives from business, industry and agriculture and representatives from environmental groups from all walks of life. 

Political leaders came to Paris for just one day, to make speeches and encourage their negotiators towards an effective compromise and their environment ministers are now at the end of the talks to try to shape a final deal. 

The issue of how to provide adequate financial assistance to the poor is likely to be one of the biggest at the talks today and the entire week ahead and hopefully will see it resolved before 11 December, the date earmarked for the potential agreement to be signed.