But before that’s done, negotiators must decide when countries should gather for the next major climate summit with renewed commitments to reduce emissions even further.
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Is this a good sign?
“It wouldn’t surprise me if there is a recognition of the intense vulnerability of some nations”.
But observers say there are some other areas were it has been more flexible, perhaps reflecting some moderation over the week. As of July this year almost half of GFDRR’s program – working with more than 400 local partners in 52 countries – supported projects specifically linked to climate change.
“Countries are very reluctant to let any one issue get ahead of the other”.
As widely predicted before the conference, the issue of climate funding for poorer countries has emerged as perhaps the biggest sticking point.
G-77 plus China group, which also includes Pakistan, is pushing rich countries at Paris Conference to provide finance, technology and help build up capacity of developing countries to cope with risky impacts of climate change.
The dispute ultimately surrounds how much and who should pay. In the Copenhagen agreement in 2009, countries agreed upon goal of spending $100 in climate related finance for the developing world by 2020. But the poorer nations want them to lift this commitment after that.
The G77 China is now entering into bilateral talks to try to “bridge the divides”.
The European Union appears to be the first to suggest a compromise. Investing in resilience has clear economic payoffs – developing countries could, for instance, achieve an additional $30 billion a year in economic benefits with improved weather, climate, and hydrological forecasting.
But for many vulnerable countries, in particular small island states and least-developed African nations, two degrees is still too much.
“But, look, here’s what we know: 99.5 percent of scientists in the world say this is a really urgent problem”, he said.
It could be put in the preamble to the agreement, but that would render it relatively meaningless.
The reason for that is, under a scenario where emissions continue at the current pace, most of the pollution growth comes from the anticipated increase in fossil fuel use by developing nations, said Ellie Johnston of the Climate Interactive. Meanwhile, Germany and France have both backed an even more aggressive warming limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius, though Saudi Arabia and India will block it. “It’s not just the actual disasters that might arise, it is the accumulating stresses that are placed on a lot of different countries and the possibility of war, conflict, refugees and displacement that arise from that changing climate”. Humans may not be able to adapt to some impacts from global warming, and this leads to questions about how to how to cope with unavoidable losses.
It has been an odd week for the Australian delegation, with a few wins, a few accusations and one near diplomatic death experience. “It’s becoming the whiz kid of financial innovation for climate change”, Deutz told Bloomberg BNA Dec. 3. The second draft, released on 3 December, contains 1,718 brackets and 205 options in a 50-page text, says John Niles, a foreign-policy expert and lecturer at the University of California, San Diego, who is leading a team that is tracking the evolution of the draft agreement. And they got away with some light stories in the Australian media rather than a full outbreak in the conference hallways. There, negotiators are tasked with finalizing the language and terms of the agreement.
By all accounts there was some moderate progress, but the text is still expected to be in an unruly state by the middle of Saturday in Paris when it is due to be handed over to the French. The accord will then go to government ministers for further discussion.
There is an enormous amount of work to be done.
GFDRR is supporting a number of initiatives in this effort, including the Small Island States Resilience Initiative (SISRI), which is being highlighted at the Paris talks this week.
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“Political parties around the world”.
