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1st LD Writethru: France submits proposed UN climate agreement

Xinhua, December 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

France on Saturday delivered the final text of a global agreement on climate change to participants of the marathon climate talks in Paris.

Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who presided over nearly a fortnight of talks in Paris that ran into overtime, said the proposed UN accord would be "fair, lasting, dynamic, balanced and legally binding."

According to sources, the proposed accord eyes 100 billion U.S. dollars a year for developing world from 2020. It also calls for aiming to hold global average temperature rises to below 2 Celsius over pre-industrial levels and strives for limiting the increase to 1.5 Celsius.

The draft text also proposes a collective review every 5 years of each country's progress, which "allows us to react collectively".

For the president of COP21, "if the draft text would be adopted (during the day of Saturday), it is going to represent a historic turning point", Fabius said.

The draft text "fixes a long-term ambitious but necessary objective", Fabius added.

"You will, in this hall, decide a historic agreement. The world hold its breath and counts on you," Fabius stressed.

French President Francois Hollande, who also attended this morning's Paris Committee meeting, called on all Parties to make compromises in order to adopt the draft text.

"The agreement will not be perfect for every body if everyone reads it only in their own interests, but it will be a success for us all," the French head of state said, stressing the draft text, once adopted, "will be the first universal agreement in history of climate negotiations".

"All the efforts should now turn into conclusions," Hollande said, urging all Parties to "make a choice for your country, a choice for all humanity".

Secretary General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon also called on all Parties to "finish the work on adopting a climate agreement".

The draft text is expected to be adopted by the 196 Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) later in the afternoon in Paris. Endit