Paris Climate Talks: First overnight round of negotiations begins

US labels itself a country seeking ambition, joins an alliance that had last time around opposed it

Negotiations for the Paris climate change agreement stretched towards midnight with countries deciding to go on with it till dawn. Only to take a break and giving the French hosts the chance to tweak the version yet again before they can meet on Thursday afternoon.
 
The hosts suggested, and countries agreed, that the next round of talks would be conducted in the format that was first introduced in Durban in 2011 called Indaba. It requires all ministers to come together in a round table format with only a few of their top negotiators assisting them in finding compromises.
 

Another idea that first took shape in Durban in 2011 came back alive in Paris, this time in a rather oddly amended format. In 2011 the EU had stitched together an alliance during the summit in South Africa called the Durban Alliance, which included small island countries and the least developed countries. The coalition was meant to corner the emerging economies at one level and the US at another. At Paris, with some of the same old allies, who had fallen apart over past two years, ironically the US joined the group, now rechristened the High Ambition Alliance.
 

US, which is yet to either contribute to the Green Climate Fund or like the EU has refused to have a clear road-map for delivering the existing obligation of US $ 100 billion annually by 2020, became the coalition’s new and most prominent member. In the press conference that several of the coalition members addressed together the target was clear – countries that were seeking operationalization of differentiation in the new agreement as required by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The targets included the Like-Minded Developing Countries including India and China along with several countries from Africa and the Gulf countries.

 
US president Obama’s conversation with Indian Prime Minister Modi on Wednesday seemed to have failed, at least so far, to push India back from demanding the only thing India was left to retrieve from the Paris agreement - a short to medium term economic security of continued access to carbon space.
 
With developed countries refusing either an enhancement of the pre-2020 emission reduction targets, or a road-map for delivering finance or a technological mechanism that would reduce costs of buying out intellectual property rights over clean technology, India’s options on table remain limited to operationalizing the firewall between their obligations and those of those with historical responsibility for accumulating greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

 
In an open meeting that stretched beyond expectations as many countries took the chance to make their statements, Union environment, forests and climate change minister said, “We are not suggesting that we remain stuck to the past. Surely, we must look forward and move steadily. But a durable agreement cannot be crafted by diluting historical responsibilities or by putting the polluters and the victims at the same level.”
 
Country after country praised the French for their transparency so far in trying to reach an agreement. Most of them, including India, also pointed out issues of concerns in the new version the French foreign minister had brought out. Yet they agreed that the document was worth working upon. The French had played a subtle and good hand in not trying to resolve all issues in one go and left options on the table for the most difficult questions.

 
At the time of writing this story the Indaba format meetings, which would permit the ministers along with only three negotiators supporting them to engage in the talks, were set to launch soon.