2nd LD Writethru: Final draft of Paris climate agreement reached

A final draft of a new global climate agreement was reached by negotiators in Paris on Saturday, ready for ministers to read and deal with sensitive political divergences next week.

The draft, now running to 21 pages, consists of 26 articles covering different issues include emission reduction, adaptation, loss and damage, finance, technology and transparency of action and support. It will now be handed over to ministers for further discussion next week.

Compared to the first version of the draft negotiators reached early this year in Geneva Switzerland, which runs to nearly 100 pages, the draft on Friday was more readable with fewer and clearer options for different issues.

"It's an outcome achieved by all parties after long-lasting efforts, lays a solid foundation for future work. It deserves to be celebrated," said Su Wei, China's chief negotiator.

The Paris agreement is expected to be the second legally-binding instrument under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty which obliges developed countries to take the lead in cutting carbon emission and providing financial support to developing countries. The first one was Kyoto Protocol, which set quantitative emission cutting targets for developed countries.

Su said that "several divergences" remained to be bridged in the agreement. Though the final result was "rather good", negotiators had experienced a "tough" week.

Finance is the hardest issue in the negotiation, observers said. Developed countries were reluctant to scale up their finance support to developing countries after 2020, when the Paris agreement comes into force, from a level of 100 billion U.S. dollars, an amount of money rich countries promised back in 2009 but never delivered.

Other key issues include how to reflect "common but differentiation responsibility", a fundamental principle of the Convention, in emission reduction, adaptation, finance, transparency and all other elements of the agreement.

"Climate change is a global challenge faced by all," Su said, "Countries should walk towards each other and make more efforts in order to ensure a success."

"It's like cooking. We now have all the materials and seasoning ready, we expect to see how we could make a Paris feast which reflects characters of French cuisine as well as all other countries' delicacies," Su said. Endit