The Paris conference is in its final hours. France pushed the deadline for a new—potentially final—draft text to Saturday morning, and if all goes well, countries could adopt it later in the day. Jonathan M. Katz, reporting for the New Republic in Paris, breaks down who wants what in the final deal.
The absence of a final agreement hasn’t stopped everyone from rehearsing their messaging around a deal. The U.S. is no doubt prepared to take a victory lap, PR firms have been on call, and environmentalists are already prepared to “denounce” the expected agreement.
The draft released Thursday was a considerable improvement from earlier this week, except on the usual sticking points: differentiation, loss and damage, and financing. Once the deal is finalized, we’ll sort through the good, the bad, and the empty promises for a final report on whether Paris actually delivers progress on climate change.
Until then, here’s our progress report on COP21. Blue bars indicate progress toward the goals, compared to yesterday, red bars indicate backward momentum, and gray bars indicate no change:
Here’s a roundup of the biggest news from around the conference:
- Jonathan M. Katz, reporting from Paris, ponders whether international aid can work for climate change, especially when countries want accountability for everyone but themselves. (New Republic)
- The final agreement could be ambitious, but if it doesn’t include specific policies and mechanisms to create and measure progress, it will also be meaningless. (New Republic)
- Scientists say to reach the agreement’s ambitious warming targets, emissions need to be cut deeply and rapidly from 2020 onwards. (Washington Post)
- As talks have continued, couches at Le Bourget have steadily become more occupied with negotiators and reporters working through the night. (New Republic)
- A graphic on sea level rise in Chinese cities if warming reaches 2 degrees. (New York Times)
- Though the final text has not yet been released, environmental activists are gearing up to denounce the agreement. (New Republic)
- To protect their economies, India and Saudi Arabia want to block references in the agreement to a UN study, which found that a 1.5 degree warming limit would be safer for millions in vulnerable countries. (Climate Change News)
- Global PR firms won’t grant interview requests, but they are coordinating images for the countries who have hired them. (Reuters)
- The draft agreement is close to including what a successful agreement needs: a signal to investors that they must remove money in fossil fuels. (New York Times)
- There’s a fan site for French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, because “Fabius u is Fab.” (Tumblr)
Read our previous progress reports: