Crunch time after all-night climate talks in Paris

A woman takes a picture of a globe at the COP21, the United Nations Climate Change Conference Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 in Le Bourget, north of Paris. The Paris conference is the 21st time world governments are meeting to seek a joint solution to climate change. The talks are focused on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, primarily by shifting from oil, coal and gas to cleaner sources of energy. AP

LE BOURGET — Weary envoys from 195 nations battling to forge an accord to save mankind from disastrous global warming emerged Thursday from all-night talks facing an imminent deadline with deal-breaking rows still unresolved.

More than two decades of bruising international diplomacy have failed to produce such a pact, which would require the world’s energy system to cut back on burning 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 worst-case-scenario climate change impacts: 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 Wednesday of the final accord to be used as the basis for final negotiations.

Fabius has set an ambitious deadline of Friday for the deal to be reached, and negotiators met through the night to debate the text at a sprawling conference venue in Le Bourget on the northern outskirts of Paris.

“We are progressing well. We spent the whole night on it again,” Fabius said on Thursday morning.

“In the afternoon I will propose a new text that takes into account everything I have been told. I hope, I hope that tomorrow we will have finished.”

But Fabius announced no breakthroughs in any of the biggest arguments — primarily between developing and developed nations — that have derailed previous UN efforts to forge an accord.

They include over how to pay for the costly shift to renewable energy, and how to compensate the developing nations who are feeling the biggest impacts of climate change but have emitted the least greenhouse gases.

Red lines

Embarking on a final session of the marathon talks on Wednesday night, a host of nations from all sides of the disputes voiced their entrenched positions.

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

One of the key battle lines is what cap on global warming to enshrine in the accord, set to take effect in 2020.

Many nations most vulnerable to climate change want to limit warming to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.5 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

However several big polluters, such as the United States, China and India, prefer a ceiling of 2C, which would allow them to burn fossil fuels for a while longer.

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

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

Billion-dollar deal-busters

One of the biggest potential deal-busters remains money.

Rich countries promised six years ago in Copenhagen to muster $100 billion (92 billion euros) a year from 2020 to help developing nations make the costly shift to clean energy, and to cope with the impact of global warming.

But how the pledged funds will be raised still remains unclear — and developing countries are pushing for a promise that the amount will be ramped up in future.

Meanwhile, rich nations are insisting that developing giants work harder to tackle their greenhouse gases, noting that much of the world’s emissions come from their fast-growing economies.

Most nations submitted to the UN before Paris their voluntary plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions from 2020, a process that was widely hailed as an important platform for success.

But scientists say that even if the cuts were fulfilled, they would still put Earth on track for warming of at least 2.7C.

One of the remaining battle fronts in Paris is a debate over when and how often to review those national plans, so that they could be “scaled up” with pledges for deeper emissions cuts.

But some developing nations insist they should not be pressured into deeper cuts.

Despite the hurdles, long-time observers said a deal could be reached in Paris.

“Our sense is that almost everything we need for an ambitious, equitable agreement is still in play,” Jennifer Morgan, global director of the climate program at the World Resources Institute, told reporters.

“But there is clearly an immense amount of work to be done in the coming hours.”

Previous UN climate conferences have extended well past their scheduled finishing times, meaning talks could extend into the weekend.

However Fabius has said he is determined for the Paris talks to end on Friday.

RELATED STORIES

What’s behind movement for ‘high ambition’ in Paris?

WATCH: Greenpeace brings ‘giant polar bear’ to climate talks