Civil society urged ministers to step up their game in final push for a strong climate deal as a new streamlined draft agreement was released in Paris on Wednesday, with the French Presidency urging for the finalisation of the deal by today.
In instant reactions, members of the Climate Action Network (CAN), a network of over 900 NGOs, have called on countries to choose the strongest possible options in the final hours to better protect vulnerable communities and speed up the transition to renewable energy.
"The next 24 hours are critical. This is where the real negotiations will begin,” said Mohamed Adow, Senior Climate Advisor of Christian Aid, following the release of the new text.
“We really need countries to fight to keep in the high ambition options on climate finance, the long term decarbonisation goal and a ratchet mechanism to ensure the agreement evolves to meet the needs of a changing world."
May Boeve, Executive Director of 350.org, demanded for a clear signal out of Paris, but some parties are still muddying the waters with weak text.
“If countries are serious about keeping warming below 1.5°C, we need to see a firm commitment to get rid of fossil fuels and move to 100% renewable energy by 2050, and an ambition mechanism to help us get there. Politicians need to start living up to the title of 'leader' in the next 48 hours."
Michael Brune, Executive Director of Sierra Club, said the updated climate text yesterday marked a key moment for the Paris agreement while political leaders will make final choices in the coming hours about how we take global action to fight the climate crisis.
“Some of the words in this text are smeared with the fingerprints of the oil-producing states,” said Kaisa Kosonen, Climate Policy Advisor of Greenpeace. It’s a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly, but three days left to force the worst stuff out and get a decent deal.
“It’s crunch-time now, it’s going to be hard, but there’s a lot still to fight for,” Kaisa said. “It’s good that a temperature goal of 1.5°C is still there. It’s bad that countries’ emissions targets are so weak and there’s very little in the text that makes them come back soon with something better. But worst is the deadline for phasing out carbon emissions.”
“It’s encouraging to see a cleaner text that contains fewer brackets as a result of agreements being reached on issues like technology development and transfer and capacity building,” said Alden Meyer, Director of Policy and Strategy at Union of Concerned Scientists.
However, Alden said, the agreements on the core political issues—the long-term goal, review and revision of INDCs, transparency, loss and damage, and finance—have yet to be resolved.
“All the elements for a meaningful deal are on the table, but now the fight begins on trade-offs. It’s encouraging to see ‘loss and damage’ recognised in the draft text, but its place is not yet secured,” said Sven Harmeling, Climate Change Advocacy Coordinator of CARE International.
“With what’s currently on the table, rich nations are still holding the purse strings, unwilling to commit to their fair share of action to save the people and their planet,” said Adriano Campolina, Chief Executive of ActionAid International.