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France pressed for tougher pledges on climate change from the Group of 20 nations ahead of climate talks in Paris that start at the end of this month. AP |
After uniting to fight terrorism and narrowing their differences over the future of Syria, one issue remains divisive among world leaders: what should be done to stop the planet from getting hotter.
France pressed for tougher pledges on
climate change from the Group of 20 nations ahead of climate talks in
Paris that start at the end of this month. The key issue was whether to
mention the aim to limit the rise in global warming to 2 degrees, which
is what United Nations scientists have said the world needs to do by the
end of this century to avoid catastrophic climate changes.
"After
long negotiations through the night, we managed to get the
two-degree-goal into the agreement," German Chancellor Angela Merkel
said. "However, we also made clear that a lot of negotiating remains to
ensure that we make progress at the Paris climate summit. It has to be a
success, and Germany will do anything to assist France."
The
section on climate emerged as the foremost sticking point in
negotiations over what countries will promise to undertake. French
Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said all leaders reaffirmed their
commitment to gather in Paris following the slaughter by Islamic
militants in the city, yet he pushed for more ambitious language about
tackling rising temperatures. The 2 degree goal wasn't mentioned in an
earlier draft, he said.
Officials
at the G-20 summit in Turkey worked overnight and into the morning to
hammer out the wording of a paragraph in the final communique that was
released on Monday.
"We can see the difference
between the statement at the outset and the one at the end," Fabius, who
represented Francois Hollande at the summit after the president
cancelled his trip to stay in Paris, said at a briefing. "The initial
draft wasn't satisfactory so I intervened and I received a great deal of
support. We had to continue the hard work so the statement was a little
more robust."
While emission-reduction pledges
submitted by nations so far are not enough to reach that goal, the
international deal that envoys aim to reach in Paris may encourage
further cuts as long as it includes a mechanism to revise the
commitments, the UN Environment Program said earlier this month.
Another
bone of contention was that France and allies such as Germany
encountered resistance to include a line in the communique to simply say
that climate change is a common challenge and needs collective enhanced
action, according to an EU official who asked not to be named while the
haggling continued over the language. In the end, the world
"collective" was included in the final text.
The COP
21 climate summit is due to begin on November 30, when leaders from
around the world will meet in Paris to attempt what a 2009 summit in
Copenhagen failed to do: reach a global agreement on how to cut
fossil-fuel use. Countries have already submitted so-called Intended
Nationally Determined Contributions, pledging the scope of emissions
cuts.
The divide at the G-20 initially emerged over
whether countries will back a more "differentiated" approach, where
developed nations carry an extra burden, or "shared" emissions
responsibilities, which would require developing nations to make bigger
cuts, according to officials who asked not to be named.
A
reference to differentiation was removed from an early draft of the
communique, though was cited in a separate statement from Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa, the so-called BRICS developing
economies.
The BRICS nations called for a greater
focus on emissions pledges to be "differentiated" based upon national
circumstances, suggesting they favour industrialized nations doing more
to limit emissions than developing ones.
Advocacy
groups said the final agreement was a compromise that fell short of
expectations. There are no guarantees that climate financing will be
part of the Paris agreement and even mention of the 2 degrees pledge is
not backed up by measures, according to Kiri Hanks, energy policy
adviser for Oxfam.
"They've postponed the tough
choices," Hanks said in Antalya. "It's a very bland statement. They're
basically saying, 'see you in Paris."'
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