World Awaits Historic Climate Deal To Keep Rises ‘Well Below 2C’

EFE

Organisers of climate talks in Paris have released details of a proposed momentous deal to help deter climate change.

The French president François Hollande has said the deal is an ‘opportunity to change the world’ and is urging negotiators at the UN talks to adopt the final text of an agreement that will provide huge momentum to efforts to curb climate change.

Miguel Medina/AFP

France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that the final draft of the deal would limit warming to “well below 2C”, which was met with cheers by summit goers.

He hailed the agreement as a “historic turning point” in climate negotiations that have gone on for decades. The agreement would be reviewed every five years, he added.

Reuters

It’s been six years after the Copenhagen climate talks ended in chaos, but it looks like this will end a lot more positively- with the final text agreed provisionally on Saturday morning after negotiations went on through the night.

The final draft agreement is being presented to international delegates in Paris after a fortnight of intense talks.

AP

Almost 200 countries have come together to attempt to strike the first climate deal to commit all countries to cut their emissions- which would come into effect in 2020.

As part of the agreement national targets would need to be reviewed every five years to increase greenhouse gas cuts.

AP

$100 billion a year in climate finance has also been promised by 2020, requiring ongoing assistance to meet the emission targets.

Speaking to the BBC before the text was released, Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace spoke of disagreements within the camp on how they will phase out fossil fuels.

Reuters/Stringer

He said:

There’s been a lot of discussion whether the long-term goal will give a clear signal to phase out fossil by mid-century or is there a risk that it will be much later? There have been also a lot of arguments about the financing package because it was quite clear that for the US and for Europe it’s such a big step forward which is hardly to believe they will do it. So everything seems to be sorted but we don`t know yet whether it`s a good one or a bad one.

The last hours of the talks culminate a four-year effort to produce the first international pact asking all countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

AP/Martin Meissner

Scientists and policy experts say that world needs to completely rid of fossil fuels between 2050 and 2100.

UNILAD