Revised Paris agreement draft to be out today

Balance in the revised version could help close the negotiations in time on Friday

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday conversed with US President Barack Obama on the Paris agreement. Later, Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar met US Secretary of State John Kerry in Paris. This triggered detailed negotiations between the two countries at the technical level to find ways to a compromise.

The French hosts and presidency of the climate change talks informed countries that a revised draft of the Paris agreement, based on the consultations with ministers over two days would be revealed on Wednesday afternoon.

The ministers and their negotiators from the 196 countries have been holding closed door discussions for the past two days to narrow down differences on the penultimate draft of the Paris agreement that emerged from the first week of negotiations.

The discussions were held in parallel on different issues that together comprise the Paris agreement. But, the discussions did not boil down to ministers negotiating specifically on the text but merely exchanging views.

“For most contentious parts we have only heard countries repeat their standard lines and only in some parts have we seen convergence and compromise emerge,” said one developing country negotiator.

The French presidency led by its foreign minister Laurent Fabius and the special envoy on climate change Laurence Tubiana continued to also meet countries at a bilateral level to figure out areas of convergence.

On Monday, several developing countries had expressed hope that ministers would engage in text-based negotiations instead of discussions but that did not take place on Tuesday. The revision of the draft for the Paris agreement would be now done by the select facilitating ministers, the UN climate convention secretariat and the French presidency. Developing countries had concerns that the facilitators might fail to capture the positions of all countries in a balanced fashion. This fear emerged out of the daily reports that the facilitating ministers presented on Monday evening, which some countries found were not reflective of the continuing differences in the closed door meetings.

Once the revised draft by the French presidency is brought out on Wednesday afternoon ministers and their teams would be given some time to see how comfortable they are with the compromises suggested. Several negotiators said, in case of minor differences, the French draft could then be finalised by Thursday. But, they said, if some countries found their red-lines (non-negotiable issues) were being breached, they were likely to ask for substantial revision. “That could mean a long haul ahead,” said one negotiator. “It would also reset the chess game to start when one set of aggrieved countries put in their options and the others react to bracket them and more,” he said. Bracketing indicates disagreement between countries.

The French are hoping to seal the text of the agreement by Thursday, which can then be cleaned to fit with international laws and be translated into various languages for all countries to sign on to by Friday evening.