“This year we expect total emissions to flatten or drop slightly, despite strong growth in gross domestic product worldwide”.
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Still undecided is whether the agreed-upon cap on global average temperature increases will be 1.5 or 2°C, and what the long-term goal will look like.
Janet Redman, with the Institute for Policy Studies, said “I won’t be surprised if the Paris deal does not deliver what we need”.
Some protesters chanted “what do we want?”
Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar encouraged all sides to keep talking. “It doesn’t matter what party they belong to”.
After some delay, the French president of the climate change conference COP21, Laurent Fabius, released a shorter, cleaner version of the text which is now being poured over by negotiators.
The 29-page text reflects the input of 14 co-facilitators appointed by the French hosts, including Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs Vivian Balakrishnan, who are trying to bridge divides on the most contentious issues.
Officials hope to finalize an global deal on climate change by the weekend, with the goal of reducing carbon emissions around the world.
Voluntary pledges to slash greenhouse gas emissions submitted by all but a handful of nations are not enough to meet the UN target of holding global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-Industrial Revolution levels, the threshold for climate catastrophe, according to scientists.
There are about 100 places where there are decisions still to be made – either multiple options in brackets, or blank spaces.
The Paris talks involve delegates from almost 200 nations who are negotiating a global deal to fight climate change. “Stabilisation, or reduction, in China’s coal use might be sustainable since more than half of the growth in the country’s energy consumption came from non-fossil fuel energy sources in 2014 and 2015”, Canadell said.
He said, “I understand fully the demand for mentioning 1.5 degrees (in the text), as we also have over 1300 islands in India”.
Several activist groups staged small protests around Paris and the conference venue Wednesday, pushing for an ambitious accord.
Another major sticking point at the talks is the future of a mechanism for dealing with the unavoidable “loss and damage” from global warming, such as rising seas and creeping deserts.
In New Delhi, the Prime Minister’s Office, in a statement, said: “The conversation focused on the ongoing Conference of Parties (CoP21) in Paris”.
Kerry says the USA will increase the amount of money it provides for climate adaption grants to $860 million from $430 million by 2020.
The cash will be part of an existing assurance by rich countries to collectively marshal $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether this is money that has already been promised in other aid packages.
The coalition, which also includes the European Union, Norway, some of the poorest countries in the world and nations including Mexico and Colombia, warned it would not accept a minimalist or bare bones agreement.
“Both leaders emphasised their personal commitment to secure a strong climate change agreement this week and their interest in our countries’ working together to achieve a successful outcome”, the White House said in a readout of the phone call yesterday.
Kerry, speaking at a meeting of the U.N. Foundation on the world’s oceans, said refusal by doubters to recognize the threat of rising sea levels is “insulting to everything we learned in high school about science”.
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Ms Bishop has described it as “the beginning of the end of the negotiations” and has identified three issues that still require action- how ambitious the deal will be, how to balance responsibility between developed and developing countries and how the deal is financed.
