French Presidency prepares to publish latest negotiating text and calls on ministers to knuckle down in pursuit of compromise deal
The Paris climate talks are expected to take a step forward this evening, as the French Presidency prepares to publish the latest version of the negotiating text and call on Ministers to redouble efforts to deliver an historic agreement.
The text will be released late this evening following an intense 24 hours of negotiations, which saw many of the key players in the talks reiterate their 'red lines' relating to differentiation, a long-term goal, and climate finance, which French President Laurent Fabius identified yesterday as the main sticking points to securing a deal.
Sources indicated last night's marathon talks, which ran until 7am on some issues, had made little progress on the deadlocked issues.
However, ahead of the release of the latest text there were some encouraging signs a compromise agreement could yet be struck.
Chinese officials said they expected a deal to be finalised by Saturday, while India's Prakash Javadekar said "constructive" talks had been conducted with the US.
Meanwhile, the EU's Miguel Arias Cañete predicted China could yet back European and UK calls for a system of five year reviews that would require countries to regularly reassess their INDC national climate action plans.
Brazil's Antonio Marcondes offered some of the most conciliatory signals to date, telling reporters this afternoon it was "time we made compromises to guarantee that Paris will be successful in achieving what we all came for here: to leave Paris with a robust, balanced and ambitious agreement".
Speculation is now mounting as to whether the French Presidency will publish a "clean text" that is expected to provide the basis for the final agreement or opt for an update of the draft text that would see Ministers continue their pursuit of a form of words that delivers compromise all countries can support.
Either way, the negotiations are now expected to run through the night with observers now predicting the summit will run well into the weekend.
This article is part of BusinessGreen's Road to Paris hub, hosted in association with PwC.
