Gloves are off in search for deal

LE BOURGET: French President Francois Hollande said yesterday there were “still difficulties” in the climate talks in Paris, especially on financing.

“There are still difficulties, we are aware of them, on financing ... There is also some resistance, particularly in relation to compensation for loss and damage,” Mr Hollande said.

This was the latest official reaction as rich and poor nations launched a flurry of well-drilled diplomatic punches in a final Paris showdown aimed at securing an elusive accord to save mankind from disastrous global warming.

More than two decades of bruising international diplomacy have failed to produce such a deal, which would require the world’s energy system to cut back on the use of coal, oil and gas that releases planet-warming gases.

The 195-nation UN talks in the French capital have been billed as the last chance to avert the worst consequences of climate change: increasingly severe drought, floods and storms, as well as island-engulfing rising seas.

After nine days of tense negotiations, French Foreign Minister and conference host Laurent Fabius released a draft of the final accord on Wednesday to be used as the basis for a frenetic final 48 hours of talks.

“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,” Mr Fabius told the delegates, mostly environment and foreign ministers.

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.

The streamlined text released by Mr Fabius eliminated hundreds of relatively minor points of dispute and reflected a sense of co-operation from all sides in Paris rarely seen in the UN climate negotiating halls.

After its release, delegates and longtime observers said they were cautiously optimistic an accord could be reached by today’s deadline at a sprawling conference venue in Le Bourget on the northern outskirts of Paris.

But all of the biggest arguments had yet to be resolved.

“This is the decisive moment,” French President Francois Hollande said in Paris.

“We are not there yet. We are on the track. I hope the good track, but we know there is resistance, questions coming from [various] countries.”

Immediately after the start of an expected all-night session on Wednesday night to debate the draft accord, a host of nations stepped up to voice entrenched positions they warned could derail the effort.

“Many options cross our red lines,” Luxembourg negotiator Carole Dieschbourg, representing the European Union, told the other delegates.

One of the key battle lines is what target of global warming to enshrine in the accord, which would take effect in 2020.

Many nations most vulnerable to climate change want to set a goal of below 1.5C compared with pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

However many big polluters, such as the United States, China and India, would prefer a cap of less than 2C, which would allow them to burn more fossil fuels for longer.

Barbados’s Environment Minister, Denis Lowe, representing a bloc of Caribbean nations that are among the most vulnerable to rising sea levels, said 1.5C was non-negotiable.

“We will not sign off on an agreement that represents the certain extinction of our people,” Mr Lowe said.

Many other ministers echoed their nations’ long-held positions.

Still, most also said the draft was an acceptable blueprint to work from and they were prepared to continue negotiating.