U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon opened the second week of talks by telling delegates that “outside these negotiating halls, there is a rising global tide of support for a strong, universal agreement”. The capital is capable of moving wheresignal of the marketplace will ask to go after Paris, he added.
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The president of the COP21 talks, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, has brought the negotiations together under the so-called Paris Committee to make progress and facilitate compromises between the 195 countries negotiating the agreement.
European ministers, including the UK’s Energy and Climate Change Secretary Amber Rudd, have warned that all countries will need to compromise to secure a deal as the conference enters what some are describing as the “sharp end” of the talks. The ministers acknowledged that “the principle of differentiation might be applied differently to each element in accordance with the Convention” Differentiation between developed and developing countries is one of the core contentious issues that need to be resolved for an effective agreement in Paris.
The working draft agreement included deep cuts to greenhouse gases to minimize the global average temperature rise, to foster a “transformation towards sustainable development” including plenty of food worldwide, and increase the adaptability of the peoples of the world to ensure international stability.
Fossil fuels still meet about 80 percent of the world’s energy demand, though the share of renewable energy including hydro, solar and wind power is growing, particularly in electricity generation.
The United States is taking bold action on climate change at home as we work with partner nations to do the same.
“We had discussions on what efforts they (US) are making and what we are doing”, Javadekar said.
It is a bold stance for a country which is itself a high carbon emitter to adopt in sensitive talks where a chasm exists between rich and poor countries and money has been a critical sticking point. “The adverse impacts of climate change threaten the world as a whole, including the very survival of the 79 countries of the ACP Group”.
He said that no much headway has been made in finance or technical support. China has pledged more than $3 billion in climate finance but stresses it’s a voluntary contribution. Most of the smog is blamed on coal-fired power plants, along with vehicle emissions, construction and factory work.
Meanwhile, a surprising new study suggested global carbon dioxide emissions may be dropping ever so slightly this year.
“If you create a concept of liability you’ll have 100-to-nothing in Senate and 435-to-nothing in the House”, said Kerry referring to likely bipartisan opposition in Congress to a deal that puts the United States on the hook for economic reparations for climate change.
With just three official days of negotiations left for the 190-plus nations represented in Paris to nut out an agreement – and despite a key alliance between Europe and some developing nations emerging on Tuesday – some deep divisions over climate change funding and the reporting of carbon emissions are yet to be resolved. “One of the other things that is really different here today is that business has stepped up to the agenda”, he says.
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Ban further urged five-year government reviews of each country’s commitment to the below-2-degrees goal before it takes effect in 2020, while underscoring that the low-emissions transformation in the global economy is “inevitable, beneficial and already under way”.
