Press Trust of India
Le Bourget, Dec 11: Negotiations for a climate change deal hit a roadblock today with countries like India and China refusing to yield their ground on emissions and funding, stretching the high-stakes talks by a day to wrap up a highly-elusive deal. Mounting hectic last-minute efforts, US Secretary of State John Kerry met Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar in the third interaction in as many days. Javadekar said the success of Paris agreement will depend on the spirit of accommodation and flexibility shown by developed countries.
India stuck to its demand that developed countries like the US should shoulder more of the cost that countries face in adapting to the effects of climate change. Meanwhile, China was resisting calls, led by the US and the European Union, for all nations to review and update their national plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions every five years and had also reasserted demands that developed nations do far more to curb greenhouse gas emissions, sources said. Diplomats from 195 countries attending the Conference of Parties (CoP) are grappling with how to resolve differences over crucial issues, which are very dear to the developing nations but could not reach a deal before the self-imposed deadline of tonight.
Despite the apprehensions of a repeat of the 2009 Copenhagen Summit that failed miserably, hosts France struck an optimistic note, saying “we are nearly there”. “We are nearly there. I’m optimistic,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters accompanied by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. “I’ll present a text tomorrow at 0900 (1330 IST) to the parties that I’m sure will be adopted.” “We had a very constructive meeting. We made a lot of progress. Progress made last night, a long night, but there’s still a couple of very difficult issues we’re working on,” he said, after talks with summit host, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
A desperate UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon appealed to envoys to take a “final decision for humanity”. “This negotiation is complicated, most difficult but important for humanity. We have just very limited hours remaining.”
