Group items tagged

“Our text is the best possible balance,” he said, “a balance which is powerful yet delicate, which will enable each delegation, each group of countries, with his head held high, having achieved something important.

negotiators from countries representing a self-described “high-ambition coalition” walked into the United Nations plenary session shortly before noon, they were swarmed by cheering

Mr. Ban has said there is “no Plan B” if this deal falls apart

But it is not yet certain that the draft accord will receive the unanimous support required for it to become legally binding.

But it is not yet certain that the draft accord will receive the unanimous support required for it to become legally binding.

A more likely course of events, Ms. Morgan and others said

They would then engage in sideline talks, while Mr. Fabius and his envoys negotiate to win their support.

Poorer countries had pushed for a legally binding provision requiring that rich countries appropriate a minimum of $100 billion a year to help them mitigate and adapt to the ravages of climate change. In the final deal, that $100 billion figure appears only in a preamble, not in what would be the legally binding portion of the agreement.

The stated goal of the agreement is to begin to level off the rise in fossil fuel emissions enough to stave off an increase in atmospheric temperatures of 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit)

More recent scientific reports have concluded that even staving off that amount of warming will not save the planet from many of the worst effects of climate change, particularly rising sea levels. Thus, the text was expected to include a reference to reducing emissions enough to stave off a warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit).

Vulnerable low-lying island states have pushed for the inclusion of the more stringent target,

At the core of the agreement are a set of individual plan

n their own, those plans will lower greenhouse gas emissions only about half as much as is necessary

The accord also requires “stock-taking” meetings every five year

It also sets forth language requiring countries to monitor, verify and publicly report their levels of emissions.

In the end, the final draft requires all countries to use the same system to report their emissions, but it allows developing nations to report fewer details until they build the ability to better count their carbon emissions

Some elements of the accord would be voluntary, while others would be legally binding. That hybrid structure was specifically intended to ensure the support of the United States

Such a proposal would be dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled Senate, where many lawmakers question the established science of climate change, and where even more hope to thwart President Obama’s climate change agenda.

As a result, all language in the accord relating to the reduction of carbon emissions is essentially voluntary

“This agreement is highly unlikely to trigger any legitimate grounds for compelling Senate ratification,” said Paul Bledsoe, a climate change official in the Clinton administration.

Representatives of 195 countries reached a landmark climate accord on Saturday that will, for the first time, commit nearly every country to lowering planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions to help stave off the most drastic effects of climate change.

final deal did not achieve all that environmentalists, scientists and some countries had hoped for