new strategy to boost flagging climate talks
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today
Egypt Today, egypt today
Last Updated : GMT 09:07:40
Egypt Today, egypt today

Diplomats frustrated at lack of progress

New strategy to boost flagging climate talks

Egypt Today, egypt today

Egypt Today, egypt today New strategy to boost flagging climate talks

Climate negotiators need a more workable draft version
Bonn - Arab Today

As a December deadline looms, diplomats wrangling over the text of a climate rescue pact kicked the can further down the road Friday, frustrated at their own lack of progress.

On the final day of a crucial negotiating round in Bonn, delegates turned to the joint chairmen of the UN forum for help in editing the unwieldy blueprint into a more manageable format.

The duo, Algeria's Ahmed Djoghlaf and Daniel Reifsnyder of the United States, promised to have a streamlined version ready in time for the next round of Bonn talks from October 19-23.

Crucially, these will be the final five days of official negotiations to prepare for the much-anticipated November 30-December 11 Paris conference tasked with sealing the long-sought universal climate deal.

"We have only 1,800 minutes to agree on the draft package for Paris," Djoghlaf said. "Every minute has value."

The pair also announced that a dedicated "drafting committee" will be created to start work as soon as negotiators reassemble.

As it stands, the text is an 83-page tome with contradictory country proposals on how to deal with the global warming threat.

Diplomats lamented the "snail's pace" of this week's five-day haggle, accusing one another of rehashing well-rehearsed positions and holding up the real work of point-by-point text bartering.

"We see very senior, experienced negotiators very frustrated because they are itching to get to the line-by-line negotiations, which we very much need to take place before we get to Paris," European negotiator Elina Bardram told AFP.

- No time for chit chat -

It is time for "direct, inclusive, and interactive negotiations" added Gurdial Singh Nijar, a Malaysian negotiator and spokesman for the Like Minded Developing Nations bloc, which includes China, India, and many African, South American, Middle Eastern and Asian countries.

"The time for talking about concepts and general chit chat is over," he added.

The Paris agreement is meant to slow the march of dangerous global warming by slashing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions from mankind's unbridled burning of fossil fuels.
The overarching goal is to limit average warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

But there are fundamental disagreements on how to share out carbon-emissions cuts between rich nations, which have polluted for longer, and emerging giants such as China and India powering fast-growing economies and populations.

Poor nations are also looking to developed-country partners for commitments of financial and technological aid for their shift to greener energy, and adapting to a new world disfigured by climate change.

"The issues are very complicated," said Reifsnyder, who promised that the new text would "be a better basis for parties to go forward, see the issues from end to end, and negotiate on the substance in detail".

Climate envoy Laurence Tubiana of France was hopeful the chairmen's intervention would yield "a clear, global picture".

"I'm very happy that... the milestones are very clear, we know where we are going by October and the text will be the base where we can engage in full negotiating mode."

- High stakes -

The Paris conference will open in the presence of heads of state who will be keen to avoid a repeat of the 2009 Copenhagen conference, which tried and failed to produce a universal climate deal.

There are high hopes that a string of climate-themed meetings of ministers and heads of state in the coming months will give a political boost to the bureaucratic UN process, which has been bogged down in fights over procedure and ideology for years.

Negotiators made piecemeal progress this week on some of the conceptual issues of how responsibility can be shared between nations -- but participants and observers said the overall objective of a universal deal remained far off.

"Heads of state who care about their children should be angry with their negotiators," Greenpeace climate policy director Martin Kaiser said of the Bonn outcome.

"If they want to rescue a meaningful agreement for Paris they must pack bold decisions into their bags when they head to New York for the UN Sustainable Development Summit later this month" -- where leaders will meet on climate.

A timely reminder of the urgency came on Wednesday, with scientists warning the world was on track for warming of three degrees Celsius, a sure recipe for catastrophic storms, droughts, disease spread, water shortages, and sea level rise.
Source: AFP

egypttoday
egypttoday

Name *

E-mail *

Comment Title*

Comment *

: Characters Left

Mandatory *

Terms of use

Publishing Terms: Not to offend the author, or to persons or sanctities or attacking religions or divine self. And stay away from sectarian and racial incitement and insults.

I agree with the Terms of Use

Security Code*

new strategy to boost flagging climate talks new strategy to boost flagging climate talks



GMT 12:32 2017 Monday ,23 January

Exiled strongman Jammeh 'plundered' Gambia coffers

GMT 21:43 2017 Thursday ,04 May

Thai PM accepts Trump's invitation to visit US

GMT 12:43 2017 Monday ,28 August

Saad Lemjarrad appears in a new look

GMT 17:30 2017 Tuesday ,05 September

Singer Haifa Wahby will issue a new album

GMT 22:51 2017 Sunday ,17 December

Dutch police open fire on man with knife

GMT 06:57 2017 Sunday ,27 August

Quake hits South African gold mine

GMT 09:23 2019 Monday ,19 August

Live an important and happy atmosphere

GMT 18:25 2012 Sunday ,05 February

Cash-strapped Europe struggles to up military might

GMT 16:16 2014 Tuesday ,04 March

ADEC launches first Student Research Competition

GMT 13:29 2018 Friday ,14 December

Turkey targets military over alleged Gulen links
 
 Egypt Today Facebook,egypt today facebook  Egypt Today Twitter,egypt today twitter Egypt Today Rss,egypt today rss  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube  Egypt Today Youtube,egypt today youtube

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©

egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday egypttoday egypttoday
egypttoday
بناية النخيل - رأس النبع _ خلف السفارة الفرنسية _بيروت - لبنان
egypttoday, Egypttoday, Egypttoday