“Addressing climate change will require a fundamental change in the way we power our planet”. India, along with other major developing economies like Brazil and South Africa, has clearly called for the requirement of differentiation to be one of main features of the Paris agreement.
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The US also sought “to reassure them about our commitment to investments moving forward and helping countries adapt to the impacts of climate change”.
Jake Schmidt, the director of the International Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the draft agreement removes many previous questions, but leaders are still faced with deciding whether it’s going to be a foundational agreement. The White House earlier announced plans to double USA investment in basic energy research.
“There are some countries here who are not in the coalition and, indeed, who seek a more minimal outcome”, Stern said. He cited small-island states that hold “legitimate concerns that the sea will swallow their lands”.
Phillips added she isn’t anxious about a recent public opinion poll that suggested Alberta’s climate change strategy had only minority support across the province.
Protester Kyle Gracey said “it is still not enough”. The new aid “is a positive step, but it’s just a drop in the ocean compared to what is needed”.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is leading the United Nations talks outside Paris, said progress had been made in the last few days but cautioned that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed”. The text was also considerably shorter in length, he said.
It also wanted to make “sure that those countries are demonstrating a commitment of their own to reducing carbon polluting, and joining the rest of the world in the fight against climate change”, Earnest said.
Green groups Seas At Risk and Transport & Environment (T&E) also voiced their concern, saying in a joint statement Wednesday that “the dropping of worldwide aviation and shipping emissions from the draft Paris climate agreement published this afternoon has fatally undermined the prospects of keeping global warming below 2°C”.
Notably, when it comes to the text’s key passage regarding the long-term temperature target, it now offers three options – more than before – of holding temperatures “below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels”, “well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels”, and “below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. I understand fully the demand for mentioning 1.5 degrees, as we also have over 1300 islands in India, .
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with the environment ministers of two of the largest developing nations as negotiators try to hammer out details of a global accord on climate change by the end of the week.
For example, the choice of words such as “shall” or “should” or “may” could still weaken or strengthen the final text, and it is still unclear whether the final agreement will keep the rise in global temperatures “below 2” or “well below 2” or “below 1.5” degrees C.
Challenging participants at United Nations talks here to reach a new global climate agreement by Friday’s self-imposed deadline, Kerry said the USA would increase the amount of money it provides for climate adaption grants to $860 million from $430 million by 2020. Will there be a progression where countries have to increase their ambition every time?
“I am convinced we can reach a deal but to do so we must unite our forces and set our compass on the need for compromise”, Fabius told the delegates.
The text proposes several options for financing, ranging from just putting the onus on developed countries to “mobilize” finance to the idea that this will be “a shared effort, led by developed country Parties”.
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Deep divisions – primarily between developing and developed nations – over how to pay for the costly shift to renewable forms of energy, such as solar and wind, have bedevilled the UN climate process.
