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UN climate talk negotiators close to historic pact

by IBNS 11 Dec 2015, 07:30 am

Paris, Dec 11 (IBNS) Negotiators from across the globe at the Paris climate conference are closer to a historic accord as a fresh draft of the pact was released on Thursday with some ice braking in key issues.

"We are extremely close to the finish line," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who is the president of the talks, was quoted as saying.
 
 A new stage in the development of a final agreement on climate change to limit global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius or less has been reached on Wednesday, according to the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General on Climate Change.
 
“All the delegations have received the documents, they’re reading them, they will be discussing the paper in their groups, and then there will be feedback provided to a new plenary organized this evening,” earlier said Janos Pasztor in an interview with the UN News Service on the sidelines of the United Nations climate change conference (COP21).
 
“Presumably, they will be working on it all night, because there are still many brackets, and they need to be removed so we can find solutions to those issues,” he added.
 
Following a long night of negotiations, the President of COP21  held a plenary session, to release the new version of the draft agreement to government representatives who will continue meeting to settle the last outstanding issues, in view of its intended adoption on Friday.
 
Earlier, UN climate chief Christiana Figueres on Thursday called for a final push to meet the funding goals for the Adaptation Fund, which assists vulnerable communities in developing countries adapt to climate change.
 
The Adaptation Fund has received new pledges for 2015 amounting to almost $75 million, including from Germany, Sweden, Italy, and the Walloon Region of Belgium, very close to the $80 million a year target for 2014-15 which was set about two years ago.
 
Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, said: “I would like to thank all those who have prior to and at COP21 pledged financial support to the Adaptation Fund.”
 
“The announcements at the UN climate change conference by Germany, Italy, Sweden and Wallonia now put us in striking distance of that $80 million aim. I would call on others to come forward with the final support needed in order to register yet another success here in Paris towards the overall goal of a low emission, resilient world”.