AFP, Le Bourget :
Sleep-starved envoys tasked with saving mankind from catastrophic climate change aim to wrap up a historic Paris accord on Saturday after battling through a second all-night session of UN talks, the French hosts said.
Eleven days of bruising international diplomacy in the French capital appeared to finally open the door to an elusive deal, now expected to be delivered one day after the original Friday evening deadline.
“It will be presented Saturday morning for adoption midday,” said a source at the French presidency of the climate talks, an annual gathering that frequently misses deadlines by days.
“Things are moving in the right direction,” said Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is presiding over the talks, according to the source who spoke to AFP.
Releasing a fresh draft of the pact on Thursday night that showed progress on some key issues, an increasingly confident Fabius had said a deal was “extremely close”.
Fabius instructed the ministers from 195 nations to make unprecedented compromises on the outstanding issues: extremely complex rows primarily pitting rich countries against poor that have derailed previous UN efforts.
World leaders have described the Paris talks as the last chance to avert disastrous climate change: increasingly severe drought, floods and storms, as well as rising seas that engulf islands and populated coastal regions.
The planned accord would seek to revolutionise the world’s energy system by cutting back or potentially eliminating the burning of coal, oil and gas, which leads to the release of Earth-warming greenhouse gases.
UN efforts dating back to the 1990s have failed to reach a truly universal pact to contain climate change.
Meanwhile, China’s President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday that their countries should step up efforts to reach a climate change deal, state media said, as leaders try to bridge gaps between rich and developing countries at talks in Paris.
Negotiators from 195 countries remain divided over fundamental issues, including which countries would be expected to shell out the hundreds of billions of dollars required to help developing nations shift from fossil fuels to lower-carbon energy sources.
That sticking point has accentuated backroom tension between the United States and China, the world’s two largest carbon emitters, over what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called the “minimalist” approach by countries that could make a greater financial contribution.
Sleep-starved envoys tasked with saving mankind from catastrophic climate change aim to wrap up a historic Paris accord on Saturday after battling through a second all-night session of UN talks, the French hosts said.
Eleven days of bruising international diplomacy in the French capital appeared to finally open the door to an elusive deal, now expected to be delivered one day after the original Friday evening deadline.
“It will be presented Saturday morning for adoption midday,” said a source at the French presidency of the climate talks, an annual gathering that frequently misses deadlines by days.
“Things are moving in the right direction,” said Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is presiding over the talks, according to the source who spoke to AFP.
Releasing a fresh draft of the pact on Thursday night that showed progress on some key issues, an increasingly confident Fabius had said a deal was “extremely close”.
Fabius instructed the ministers from 195 nations to make unprecedented compromises on the outstanding issues: extremely complex rows primarily pitting rich countries against poor that have derailed previous UN efforts.
World leaders have described the Paris talks as the last chance to avert disastrous climate change: increasingly severe drought, floods and storms, as well as rising seas that engulf islands and populated coastal regions.
The planned accord would seek to revolutionise the world’s energy system by cutting back or potentially eliminating the burning of coal, oil and gas, which leads to the release of Earth-warming greenhouse gases.
UN efforts dating back to the 1990s have failed to reach a truly universal pact to contain climate change.
Meanwhile, China’s President Xi Jinping told U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday that their countries should step up efforts to reach a climate change deal, state media said, as leaders try to bridge gaps between rich and developing countries at talks in Paris.
Negotiators from 195 countries remain divided over fundamental issues, including which countries would be expected to shell out the hundreds of billions of dollars required to help developing nations shift from fossil fuels to lower-carbon energy sources.
That sticking point has accentuated backroom tension between the United States and China, the world’s two largest carbon emitters, over what U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has called the “minimalist” approach by countries that could make a greater financial contribution.
