'Ambitious and Transparent' climate change deal unveiled in Paris [View all]

[Surya Gayatri]

Source: The Guardian

French Foreign Minister Fabius starts:

We are almost at the end of the path and no doubt embarking on another.

I wish to thank you, all of you for your work not just over the last few days and nights, but over the last few months and years.

The draft final outcome submitted to you this morning and which will be distributed at the end of this meeting owes a great deal to the progress made here at Paris.
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“We all worked a great deal, we didn’t sleep very much, several ministers, facilitators worked to reach a deal, a compromise. “

At each stage the objective was to bring us closer to the agreement we desire. Parties were consulted on best method and substance to bring us closer to a deal, he says.

“Today we are close to the final outcome. It is my deep conviction that we have come up with an ambitious and balanced agreement.”

This text which is necesarily a balanced text, contains the principle elements that we feel or did feel before would be impssobile to agree. The agreement is fair, durable, balanced and legally-binding. It is faithful to the Durban mandate. It acknoweldges the notion of climate justice and takes into account differentiated responsibilites of countries

Says deal has objective of keeping temperatures well below 2C and would endeavour to work towards 1.5C. The mention of the tough 1.5C goal gets applause.

The reduction of greenhosue gases has become the business of all, thanks to updates of pledges every five year which can only be more ambitious, he says.

The text recognises need for compensation under loss and damage, more help for adaptation, he says.

“It provides that every five years there will be a collective stock-taking of progress made,” he says.

“This text will mark a historic turning point,” in tackling emissions, he says.

Each party put forward its own red lines. Each country will not obtain everything it wanted, he says. If every country had 100% of its wishlist fulfilled our collective efforts would have amounted to zero, he says.

“We need to show the world our collective effort is worth more than the sum of our individual actions.”

We have come to focus not on the red lines but on green lines of universal commitment, he says.

Our text is the best possible balance... it will enable each country to “go back with heads held high”, having achieved something important.

“Today it is a moment of truth,” he says.

It will help island countries to protect themselves from sea-level rise which is already beginning to submerge their coastlines.

This agreement will help food security, human rights and maintaining peace, he says.

“Here in Paris there is a certain momentum, particularly in connection with mobilising civil society,” he says. “This is a positive environment, this type of planetary configuration has never been as good as today. Our responsbility to history is immense.”

No one here wants a repetition of what happened in Copenhagen, he says.

There were many inadequacies in Copenhagen, he says.

“If today if we were to fail how could we rebuild this hope,” he says. Trust would be lost among countries “irrevocably” if Paris failed, he says.


Ambition, transparency and compromise are spirit of talks here at Paris, he says.

Says heads of state brought “dynamism” to talks.




Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/live/2015/dec/12/paris-climate-talks-francois-hollande-to-join-summit-as-final-draft-published-live