Climate deal deadline today, envoys in Paris attempt all-night Paris talks

Oxfam activists wear masks of US President Barack Obama (from left), Chinese President Xi Jinping, French President Francois Hollande, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull as they stage a protest during the COP21 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Le Bourget, north of Paris, on Thursday. — AP

Weary ministers tasked with rescuing mankind from catastrophic climate change struggled Thursday to overcome a rich-poor divide, with little more than 24 hours left to reach a deal.

The UN talks in Paris struggled after 11 days’ wrangling to agree on key pillars of a post-2020 climate pact, aimed at sparing future generations from worsening drought, flood, storms and rising seas.

As all-night talks failed to overcome faultlines that have endured for more than two decades, French President Francois Hollande stepped in on Thursday morning, seeking to inject a sense of urgency.

“It is important in this last phase that we remind the negotiators why they are here,” Mr Hollande said.

“They are not there simply in the name of their countries... They are there to sort out the issue of the future of the planet.”

French foreign minister and conference host Laurent Fabius said he planned to produce a new text, based on the overnight talks, and that it was still possible to forge the historic accord by Friday’s scheduled close.

“I hope, I hope that tomorrow we will have finished,” Mr Fabius said.

The Paris accord would rally 195 nations in a quest to roll back emissions of fossil fuels, which warm Earth’s surface and affect its delicate climate system, and channel billions of dollars in aid to vulnerable countries.

But vast interests are at stake, and the goal has long been troubled by disputes.

In a sign of the difficulty and complexity of the Paris talks, carefully-crafted timetables on Thursday began to slip, with the schedule set for delivering the final negotiating draft delayed by four hours.

“They were discussing it until dawn. Then they had several hours of rest and they returned to the negotiating table this morning at nine o’clock,” said a senior Chinese climate envoy, Li Junfeng.

Mr Li said he now expected the negotiations would not finish until Saturday at the earliest.

A host of nations from all sides of the disputes voiced entrenched positions on the elusive accord.

But delegates said that the mood was still positive, and the finger-pointing and back-biting of past climate talks were so far absent.

“Morally, historically, economically and ecologically, we cannot stumble tomorrow. Humanity has a date with history,” said Ahmed Djoghlaf, who co-chaired the first round of Paris negotiations.

“Paris is known as the City of Light. From tomorrow it will be known as the City of Hope and the city where the promise made to our children was kept.”

South African negotiator Alf Wills said the overnight talks had yielded no progress in the “big political issues”, but everyone was expecting to confront them in the final hours.

Developing nations insist the United States and other established economic powerhouses must shoulder the lion’s share of responsibility as they have emitted most of the greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution.

Rich nations say emerging giants must also do more, arguing that developing countries now account for most of today’s emissions.

One of the battlegrounds is what cap on global warming to enshrine in the accord, set to take effect in 2020.

Many nations most vulnerable to climate change want to limit warming to no more than 1.5°C over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

However several big polluters, such as the United States, China and India, prefer a ceiling of 2°C, which would allow them to burn fossil fuels for a while longer.

Miguel Arias Canete, the European commissioner for climate action and energy, said the latest proposal for a pact was not sufficiently ambitious in key areas including the long-term goal for preventing planetary overheating.