As negotiators work hard on translating the leaders’ statements into action, the COP21 presidency on the second day of negotiation called for speeding things up so that a revised draft could be developed for a legally binding agreement by the noon of December 5.
“We must speed the process up because we have much to do,” French Foreign Minister and COP21 President Laurent Fabius told a press conference at the COP21 venue in Paris yesterday.
He would ask the ministers after getting the draft to expedite next week’s high-level segment of negotiations with the heads of delegations.
“The negotiations mean a whole set of concrete solution [to problems],” Fabius said, expecting to achieve a legally binding agreement to be based on the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP).
“Climate justice would be the key to the Paris Agreement while ADP is a choice.”
Replying to a question whether USA would be a problem due to Republican’s opposition, the president said the COP21 would not interfere with the domestic affairs of any country.
“We know the position of the Republican’s in the Congress,” he said, offering an oblique reference of a recent poll on the climate change in USA that showed people are becoming aware about how important the climate issue is.
Civil society groups however said progress had been mixed as delegates continue to meet in spin-off groups and informal meetings. Major issues like finance remain unsolved, which has slowed progress on other issues like the long-term goal and a plan to review national commitments periodically.
Complementing the president, UNFCCC Secretary General Christina Figueres, who also spoke at the press conference, stressed that all the countries are expected to strengthen efforts.
“The negotiation will go through ups and downs because of its nature ... It’s a legally binding text, so we’ll have to go through very very carefully.”
About any specific issue making positive development, she said: “There is a growing consensus on ratcheting up ... review of the agreement will take place every five years.”
Figueres, however, termed the negotiation impressive on the Lima-Paris Action Agenda as the organisers broke down things into different components to facilitate negotiations.
Explaining the progress, she noted four points that had never happened in history. First, climate change is definitely on the political agenda of every country; second, the agreement will take effect from 2020, but no one is seating idle to already taking measures; third, a rainfall of more and more financial commitments are in place; and fourth, it will be a legally binding text.
Meanwhile, civil society organisations with access to the negotiations said there was some progress on loss and damage on a high level, following a bilateral understanding between the US and the Alliance of Small Island States.
Negotiators have been working on bridging proposals, but have been seemingly reticent to get them on the table.
Many developed countries, including the EU, are being looked to by observers for providing more leadership in bringing negotiators together and out of their established public preferences.
On the ground in Paris, Climate Action Network (CAN) members said in a statement that with leaders having left Paris, negotiators are buckling down to the final stage of their work on the text of the Paris agreement.
“It’s clear that several key issues will be left to ministers to resolve next week,” it said.
Finance issues continued to be the most difficult, with little movement forward as negotiators continue to hold their chips close to their chest.
Observers said scaled-up and predictable climate finance remains the linchpin to progress on other key issues, including mitigation ambition and adaptation.
The atmospherics around loss and damage seem to have improved, on the heels of a productive meeting yesterday between President Obama and leaders of small island states, they added.