Climate change talks drag into another day but ‘agreement is close’

Sleep-starved envoys trying to save mankind from catastrophic climate change aim to wrap up a historic Paris accord on Saturday after battling through a second all-night session of talks. Eleven days of bruising international diplomacy in the French capital appeared to open the door to an elusive deal, now expected one day after the original Friday evening deadline. French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who is presiding over the talks, was confident that a deal would be sown up. He promised a new text of the accord on Saturday morning, despite the talks dragging on into an extra day.

The atmosphere is good, things are positive, things are going in the right direction

French foreign minister Laurent Fabius

Thursday night’s round of talks were “very hard”, according to one source. They had unearthed continued disputes over issues particularly how to balance actions by rich and poor to limit greenhouse gases. Also in the melting pot is whether to limit temperature rises to 2C or a more ambitious 1.5C. Separately, China’s president Xi Jinping and U.S. president Barack Obama spoke by phone and said their countries would maintain cooperation on climate change. Late on Thursday, Mr Fabius unveiled a slightly trimmed 27-page draft text that removed some main points of contention.

With this, I would be able to go home and tell my people that our chance for survival is not lost

Tony de Brum, foreign affairs minister of the Marshall Islands

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