Climate negotiators release new, shorter draft of accord

Raising hopes of a landmark climate deal, negotiators today unveiled a new shorter draft incorporating major progress as well as the differences, two days ahead of the deadline for the UN accord to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
The first draft of the Paris Outcome, prepared after two days of high-level ministerial deliberations, was released by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, which will be discussed by 196 nations further to reach a final agreement to tackle the challenge of climate change.
The draft negotiating text, which is "shorter" from the previous version is now of 29 pages and was circulated to all the negotiating countries.

Elaborating on the draft text, Fabius, who is the chair of the current round of climate negotiations, said the aim of the text is to enable nations to have an overall view of the progress that has been made so far.
"It (draft text) is shorter than the previous version of 48 pages. It is 29 pages long now. There has been three quarter reduction in points that were there in the bracket," he said.
"The aim of the text is to enable us (nations) to have an overall view of the progress made," he said.

The French foreign minister pointed out that the document

revealed some compromises by the nations to achieve an ambitious and comprehensive agreement.
Fabius, however, clarified that the text which was circulated today is not the final version of the agreement.
He said the issues on differentiation, financing and the level of agreement were yet to be sorted out and he has sought clearer actions from the nations.
"On several topics we are almost at the end of our efforts thanks to the commitment of the parties," Fabius told the conference.
"It is better," he said, though there are "still too many" undecided sections.
He also appealed to the negotiating countries to "scale" up their discussions as there was a need to find a "point of equilibrium".

"We have made progress but still a lot of work needs to be done," he said.
Countries will now go through the points of the text and meet again a few hours later to deliberate on it.
Negotiators raced against time to clinch a key accord at
the climate talks that has been marked by a divide between developed and developing countries.
The negotiating countries remain divided over how to finance the costly effort by developing countries to cope with the catastrophic impact of global warming and what target to set for planetary overheating.
Differences also remain on how to share the burden between rich and poor nations, as well as how to review and scale up efforts to slash greenhouse gases.

Developing countries need money and technology to make the switch to clean energy sources like solar and wind power. They are also asking for money to adapt to climate change.
The developed countries are willing to help but reluctant to make firm commitments as negotiators from over 196 nations look to negotiate a post-2020 deal to curb emissions and limit global temperature rise.
India along with other BASIC nations today questioned a recent OECD report which claimed that significant progress has been made on USD 100 billion fund for developing nations to mitigate climate change and sought a transparent mechanism for better accounting of financial flows.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) had recently come out with a paper in partnership with Climate Policy Initiative 'Climate Finance in 2013-14 and the USD 100 billion goal', claiming significant progress has been made on a roadmap for USD 100 billion a year climate change financing by 2020 and USD 62 billion has already been given.
In 2009, industrialised countries had pledged USD 100 billion to developing nations to help them fight the challenge of climate change.
The BASIC is a bloc of four large newly industrialised countries - China, India, Brazil and South Africa.