|
 In a series of opening addresses to the U.N. talks, heads of state
and government exhorted each other to find common cause in two weeks
of bargaining to steer the global economy away from its dependence
on fossil fuels. French President Francois Hollande said the world
was at a "breaking point".
The leaders arrived in Paris with high expectations and armed with
promises to act. After decades of struggling negotiations and the
failure of a summit in Copenhagen six years ago, some form of
agreement - likely to be the strongest global climate pact yet -
appears all but assured by mid-December.
"What should give us hope that this is a turning point, that this is
the moment we finally determined we would save our planet, is the
fact that our nations share a sense of urgency about this challenge
and a growing realization that it is within our power to do
something about it," said U.S. President Barack Obama, one of the
first leaders to speak at the summit.
The leaders gathered in a vast conference center at Le Bourget
airfield. In all, 195 countries are part of the unwieldy negotiating
process, with a variety of leadership styles and ideologies that has
made consensus elusive in the past.
Key issues, notably how to divide the global bill to pay for a shift
to renewable energy, are still contentious.
"Climate justice demands that the little carbon space we still have,
developing countries should have enough room to grow," said India's
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a key player because of his country's
size and its heavy dependence on coal.
One difference this time may be the partnership between the United
States and China, the two biggest carbon emitters, who between them
account for almost 40 percent of the world's greenhouse gas
emissions, according to the World Resources Institute think-tank.
Once far apart on climate issues, they agreed in 2014 to jointly
kick-start a transition away from fossil fuels, each at its own
speed and in its own way.
The United States and China "have both determined that it is our
responsibility to take action," Obama said after meeting his Chinese
counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the summit.
"Tackling climate change is a shared mission for mankind," Xi
responded in his own remarks.
Obama said the two countries would work together at the summit to
achieve an agreement that moves toward a low-carbon global economy
this century and "robust" financial support for developing countries
adapting to climate change.
Flying home to Rome on the papal plane after a visit to Africa, Pope
Francis told journalists: "Every year the problems are getting
worse. We are at the limits. If I may use a strong word I would say
that we are at the limits of suicide."
Most scientists say failure to agree on strong measures in Paris
would doom the world to ever-hotter average temperatures, deadlier
storms, more frequent droughts and rising sea levels as polar ice
caps melt.
 SMOG OVER CHINA AND INDIA
Facing such alarming projections, the leaders of nations responsible
for about 90 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions have
come bearing pledges to reduce their national carbon output, through
different measures at different rates.
As the summit opened in Paris, the capitals of the world's two most
populous nations, China and India, were blanketed in hazardous,
choking smog, with Beijing on an "orange" pollution alert, the
second-highest level.
The deal will mark a momentous step in the often frustrating quest
for global agreement, albeit one that on its own is not believed to
be enough to prevent the earth's temperatures from rising past a
damaging threshold. How and when nations should review their goals -
and then set higher, more ambitious ones - is another issue to be
resolved at the talks.
"The Paris conference is not the finishing line but a new starting
point," Xi said.
[to top of second column] |
The gathering is being held in a somber city. Security has been
tightened after Islamist militants killed 130 people on Nov. 13, and
Hollande said he could not separate "the fight with terrorism from
the fight against global warming". Leaders must face both
challenges, leaving their children "a world freed of terror" as well
as one "protected from catastrophes", he said.
On the eve of the summit, an estimated 785,000 people around the
world joined the biggest day of climate change activism in history,
telling world leaders there was "No Planet B" in the fight against
global warming.
Signaling their determination to resolve the most intractable
points, senior negotiators sat down on Sunday, a day earlier than
planned, to begin their work.
The last attempt to get a global deal collapsed in chaos and
acrimony in Copenhagen in 2009.
Anxious to avoid a re-run of the Copenhagen disaster, major powers
have tried this time to smooth some of the bumps in the way of an
agreement before they arrive.
The presidents, prime ministers and princes were making their cameo
appearances at the outset of the conference rather than swooping in
at the end.
The old goal of seeking a legally binding international treaty,
certain to be dead on arrival in the Republican-controlled U.S.
Congress, has been replaced by a system of national pledges to
reduce emissions.
Some are presented as best intentions, others as measures legally
enforced by domestic laws and regulations.
WHO WILL PAY?
If a signed deal now appears likely, so too is the prospect that it
will not be enough to prevent the world's average temperature from
rising beyond 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above
pre-industrial levels. That is widely viewed as a threshold for
dangerous and potentially catastrophic changes in the planet's
climate system.
Obama called for an "enduring framework for human progress", one
that would compel countries to steadily ramp up their carbon-cutting
goals and openly track progress against them.
The U.S.-China agreement has been a balm for the main source of
tension that characterized previous talks, in which the developing
world argued that countries which had grown rich by industrializing
on fossil fuels should pay the cost of shifting all economies to a
renewable energy future.
The question of how richer nations can help cover the cost of
switching to cleaner energy sources and offset climate-related
damage must still be resolved,
A handful of the world's richest entrepreneurs, including Bill
Gates, have pledged to double the $10 billion they collectively
spend on clean energy research and development in the next five
years.
"The climate bill has finally come due. Who will pay?" said Baron
Waqa, president of the Pacific island nation Nauru.
(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason, John Irish and Roberta Rampton;
Editing by Jennifer Lawrence and Andrew Roche)
[© 2015 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2015 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
