The chase for Paris climate agreement is going into overtime. French foreign minister Laruent Fabius, who is leading the negotiations, pushed back the deadline to Saturday after another round of all-night talks failed to yield any result till the original deadline of Friday 6pm. While making the formal announcement, Fabius expressed hope that the final package would announced on Saturday morning after negotiations on Friday.
On the night between Thursday and Friday, the rich and poor countries were divided by fractious arguments, leaving the organisers with no other option but to extend the deadline. Many negotiators across the divide speculated that the talks may get further extended till Sunday.
The night saw an ugly brawl as US Secretary Of State John Kerry threatened that developed countries would walk out of the agreement if they were asked to commit to differentiation or financial obligations. “You can take the US out of this. Take the developed world out of this. Remember, the Earth has a problem. What will you do with the problem on your own?” he told ministers from other countries during a closed-door negotiation on the second revised draft of the Paris agreement.
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Kerry left the room right after his short intervention even as other US delegates stayed back. At this point, delegates from some of the countries pointed out that the session was meant to exchange views and not to threaten and leave.
Business Standard confirmed Kerry’s remarks and other statements made during the night by speaking to multiple negotiators who were present in the meeting.
Kerry’s intervention was followed by developed countries collectively refusing to agree on a roadmap about their financial obligations towards poor countries.
In the past, developed countries have failed to deliver their commitment of providing $100 billion annually by 2020 as a part of their historical responsibility.
In a recent report, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development claimed that the rich world had delivered $62 billion by 2014. But developing countries, including India, pointed out severe accounting flaws including inclusion of high-interest loans as climate finance, which is seen as a reparation cost.
Developing countries have been demanding a roadmap for delivery of the $100 billion climate finance. They also want to fix the accounting rules in Paris so that developed countries don’t get away with misrepresenting the facts. This issue was partially reflected in the second revised draft of the Paris agreement. This proposal got the developed countries in a knot. One after the other, they took the floor demanding that developing countries should also pay for climate change.
“Kerry’s statement against differentiation and legal obligations was shocking. They (developed countries) see this is an opportunity to walk away from their obligations. At all costs the developed countries want the rules rewritten in departure from all the principles and provisions of the convention,” said Meena Raman of Third World Network, an observer group.
India, China, Argentina and many other developing countries intervened through the night pushing for differentiation as well as explicit financial obligations from the rich world. The talks remained inconclusive and the French foreign minister announced the extension.