US deals a small blow to Paris climate change agreement before key meeting

Country gets reference to financial obligations of developed country scrubbed from a critical UN report.

The US has struck a small blow at the Paris Agreement days before the high-level annual climate change negotiations kick-off at Katowice, Poland. In a UN report on climate finance, it has forced the scrubbing of all explicit references to the responsibility of developed countries for providing funds and resources to the developing countries for tackling climate change. 

The report called the ‘2018 Biennial Assessment and Overview of Climate Finance Flows’ is to be presented before countries gathering at the Katowice negotiations starting December 2.  

The report, prepared every two years, helps with the measurement, reporting and verification of financial