威力彩玩法

News
10 Dec 2015, 00:00
Kerstine Appunn Sven Egenter

COP21 - Day 11: New draft, pressure to compromise, finish in sight

A final night session in Paris? Negotiations on the latest draft will continue through the night, COP21 president Fabius said. Photo: 威力彩玩法.
[Updates new draft release] Shorter draft with less brackets and clarity on long-term target / EU fights for differentiation and sees red lines on ratcheting up ambition crossed / Saudi Arabia as the symbol for "self-destruction" of the world

Only compromise allowed in coming talks (22:30)

The French presidency presented a at the Paris climate summit with clearer options on the contested topics of differentiation, finance and ambition, and ramped up the pressure on the parties to resolve those issues overnight.

鈥淚t is time to come to an agreement,鈥 said French foreign minister Laurent Fabius. The world was expecting a deal and the summit was now extremely close to the finishing line. 鈥淲e must do this and we can do this,鈥 Fabius said. 鈥淥n the basis of the progress made on all of the text, I think I will be able to present my proposal for a final text tomorrow.鈥

Brackets indicating possible wording that hadn鈥檛 been agreed on yet, have been reduced to some 50 from over 360 in the overall document.

The new text lost all its extra options in Article two about the long-term goal, now stating that the purpose of the agreement is to 鈥渉old the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 掳C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 掳C, recognizing that this would significantly reduce risks and impacts of climate change鈥. To achieve the long-term goal "parties aim to reach the peaking of greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible," the text says. For this, "greenhouse gas emissions neutrality in the second half of the century" is the aim. Any quantative emissions reduction targets or the expression "decarbonisation" were dropped in the new draft.

However, articles on loss and damage (Article 5) and the transparency framework (Article 9) still contained several options. Article 6 on finance is still full of brackets.

The first year of taking stock of the implementation of the agreement (鈥済lobal stocktake鈥) will be in 2023 and then every five years thereafter, Article 10 states. The mention of parties recognising greenhouse gas emissions pricing as an important instrument, has been cut from the draft decision.

Germanwatch policy director Christoph Bals noted "important progress" in the text. "It's an important signal that the countries commit to greenhouse gas neutrality in the course of the century," he said. However, the ambition mechanism still had to be improved.

Delegations got time until 2330 PM to study the new text. Then Fabius would chair an 鈥渋ndaba鈥 meeting that was solely focussed on searching for compromises. Groups and individual parties could not comment in general on the text anymore but had to come forward with compromise solutions. 鈥淣ow we need to seek landing zones (on the issues).

The overall text had shrunk to 27 from 29 pages, the actual agreement text to 11 from 14 pages.

Differentiated differentiation (19:40)

The European Union wants 鈥渕ore differentiated and fair differentiation鈥 because the situation was neither one of 鈥渙ne fits all鈥 nor of 鈥渢wo fits all鈥, the German delegation said in a statement on Thursday evening. The comment came as other parties claimed that the EU and the United States were trying to delete many references to differentiation from the text.

The opposite was true, the German delegation said, adding that the EU was 鈥渞eady to take the lead to do more than others in mitigation, adaptation and support鈥. While they were recognising their responsibility, they could not keep global warming below 2掳C or even 1.5掳C without big emitters like China, India and oil producing states joining their efforts. The high ambition coalition was standing for fair differentiation. 鈥淲e will always support countries who need support and who engage!,鈥 the statement concludes.

The EU and US have demanded to see emerging nations 鈥渋n a position to do so鈥 taking action alongside developed countries, something that the G77+China, a group that includes many developing countries but also Arab States and emerging nations, have criticised, saying that it was an attempt to change the聽 essence of UNFCCC. In the UNFCCC countries are split into groups of developed (Annex I) and developing nations (Non-Annex I) 鈥 the G77+China insists that this separation is kept up and that Non-Annex I countries are not obliged to contribute climate finance, mitigation efforts and transparency on the same level as industrialised countries.

On Thursday, the EU also received the NGO award 鈥淔ossil of the Day鈥 for 鈥渟tanding in the way of increasing ambition before 2020鈥 and for 鈥渟peaking against decarbonisation while at the same time putting up statements on aiming for below 1.5 掳C rather than 2掳C鈥.

New draft in the evening - EU fights "red lines"

The much-expected new draft agreement has been delayed until Thursday evening after negotiations drew on until five o鈥檆lock in the morning. While the French presidency still had a tight grip on the process, crunch issues in the text had not been resolved, delegations and observers from civil society said.

France was still managing the process very wisely, German environment minister Barbara Hendricks said on Thursday. Some states still insisted on their rigid positions, she said.聽 鈥淭he next 36 hours will be full of suspense,鈥 she added.

The European Union was represented by six ministers, the commissioner and the EU council president in the two debating groups during Wednesday night. Discussion had been difficult, said EU head negotiator Elina Bardram. 鈥淭he text is very complicated and doesn鈥檛 lend itself to political decisions,鈥 she said. However, the group remained hopeful and was continuing to build alliances and bridges to further negotiations, she said.

EU council president and Luxembourg鈥檚 environment minister Carole Dieschbourg said that there were still a lot of possibilities in the text and some elements in the draft were crossing the bloc鈥檚 red lines. 鈥淲e cannot establish a highly ambitious target and then don鈥檛 establish the necessary tools to actually achieve this target,鈥 she said. The EU was working to get a 5-year robust ambition mechanism and transparent rules for reviews into the agreement, she said. Wednesday's text was overall a good basis to work from but the agreement needed to become more ambitious. In the opinion of the EU, the 5-year reporting and ambition cycle should start with a first stock-take in 2018-2019, followed by a 2019 鈥渁mbition dialogue鈥 and then re-submission of the parties鈥 climate action ambitions in 2021.

Differentiation and finance were the two big issues that would make up the political 鈥渆nd game鈥, Dieschbourg said.

While the EU delegation remained cautiously optimistic that an agreement would be reached by Friday, or Saturday, NGO representatives highlight that old fault lines were resurfacing in the process. 鈥淪audi Arabia has to be careful not to become the symbol for the self-destruction of the world," Christoph Bals, policy director at Germanwatch, said.

Malaysia and China were blocking the path to large emerging nations taking up responsibility in climate mitigation and climate finance, he said. Germany, the EU and the United States would like to see a provision that 鈥渃ountries in a position to do so鈥 are participating in the fight against climate change incorporated in the new agreement.

All texts created by the 威力彩玩法 are available under a . They can be copied, shared and made publicly accessible by users so long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
« previous news next news »

Ask 威力彩玩法

Sven Egenter

Researching a story? Drop 威力彩玩法 a line or give us a call for background material and contacts.

Get support

+49 30 62858 497

Journalism for the energy transition

Get our Newsletter
Join our Network
Find an interviewee