Climate Change Talks Paris: Deadline Approaching, No Truce In Sight

The clock is ticking, but there is no deal in sight. With less than 24 hours left, the Climate Change draft is far from being complete.

The high-stakes climate change summit meeting unfolding just outside Paris, in Le Bourget, is in its final stages of negotiations. The deadline to reach a final deal on curbing emissions is Friday. Will it be reached? Experience from previous summits says otherwise.

The Conference of Parties 21 (COP21) in Paris is being heralded as the beacon of hope in the current climate change scenario.

The draft, released on Wednesday, haggled over by 195 nations, proved to be inconsequential in bridging the rift between the industrialized and developing nations. Several questions remained unanswered.

The burning issue faced by the world right now is to curb the rise in temperatures on the planet. The disagreement was over whether to keep it “below” or “well below” the target of 2 degrees Celsius, or have a more ambitious and specific target of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Though it is not practical to have even the 2 degrees mark, the island nations which are most likely to be affected by the temperature rise, and the resulting climate change, have been calling for stricter targets.

The Common But Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR) problem is another bone of contention between the nations. Though most nations have agreed to them in theory, putting them in practice is proving to be a challenge. The poorer countries are arguing that they are not responsible for the current climate situation, and bargaining on their “differentiated” responsibilities, while putting the burden of “common” on the developed nations, whom they consider the original generators of greenhouse gases and carbon emissions.

The debate on “fossil fuels” seems to be never-ending, with the scientists and others, in general, calling for a complete and permanent change to renewable resources on the one hand and the oil producing countries, like Saudi Arabia, in total disagreement on the other.

Whether to calibrate the steps taken by the nations in a “measurable, reportable and verifiable” manner, or follow an “honor system,” is another question which remains unanswered. The developed nations, like the U.S.A. and the E.U., want to take a stringent and quantifiable approach to better tackle the climate issue, but many other nations are opposing it.

While the poorest of the nations are looking up to the developed ones for financial and technological help to mitigate and adapt to the effects of climate change, the latter are shying away from the sole responsibility, while trying to rope in the “advanced” developing countries, like China, to chip in.

To smooth the stalled negotiations, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced a proposal to double the amount of pledged grants by 2020 to $860 million, from $430 million, on Wednesday.

The Washington Post reported that Kerry met with the environment ministers of India and Brazil in an attempt to strike out the nitty gritties of the deal on climate change by the end of the week. Though the details of the meeting were not available, Kerry admitted that climate talks are getting down to the “critical stage.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says he is “reasonably optimistic” that an agreement on climate talks will be reached according to the Friday deadline. He said as follows.

“I am hopeful and I’m reasonably optimistic that we will be able to have for the first in the history of the United Nations a universal and very ambitious climate change agreement, which will make our human beings lives healthier and more prosperous.”

International migration officials want the climate accord to address the growing risk of migration because of extreme weather. Director of the International Organization for Migration, William Lacy Swing, warned that the increased forced migration and the unprecedented anti-immigration sentiment, in addition to the climate change, are the recipe for a “perfect storm.” This fact is highlighted more urgently as the world marks the UN Human Rights day today.

Whether the 195-odd nations come up to an agreement on climate change according to the proposed deadline remains to be seen.