COP21: Draft climate pact aims well below 2°C limit; India backs text

The climate conference on Saturday came out with an ambitious final draft that will limit global warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius and commit USD 100 billion a year from 2020 to help developing countries, an outcome India welcomed as "balanced" and a way forward for the world.

The target of well below 2 degrees Celsius and even more ambitious 1.5 degrees Celsius was originally expected not to be to the liking of developing countries like India and China who are major emitters on account of industrialisation but Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar was effusive in his welcome of the 31-page document.

Amidst cheers and applause from delegates from 195 countries, the draft of the "historic" deal was presented by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and French President Francois Hollande appealed to the gathering to approve the accord.

Delegates got a three-hour recess to go through the document but negotiators were working behind the scenes well behind schedule to clinch the deal.

Hollande called Prime Minister Narendra Modi in an apparent bid to persuade India to go with the deal.

After 13 days of hard negotiations, Fabius described the final draft negotiating text as being "fair, durable and legally binding".

Fabius said the agreement would aim at limiting warming to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius and try for an even more ambitious goal of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The deal also seeks to mobilise a minimum of USD 100 billion (about Rs 6,70,000 crores) a year from 2020 to help the developing world cope with global warming, he said.

Importantly, a new figure for the financing would be set by 2025, Fabius said, adding that it would enshrine the annual USD 100 billion as a "floor" -- a minimum for the future.

Reacting to the draft, Javadekar told the media that the differentiation between developed and developing countries, which India has been demanding, is mentioned across all the pillars of action including mitigation, adaptation, finance and access to technology.

He said the draft is a "balanced" one and is a way forward for the world.

Terming it as an "important achievement" for India, Javadekar said that "sustainable lifestyles and climate justice" which have been espoused by it also get a mention in the final 31-page draft.

"After the first glace of the final text, we are happy that the text contains and take care of concerns of India. It is linked with the convention (United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change) while Common But Differentiated Responsibilities is imbibed in it," Javadekar said.

"More importantly, differentiation for developed and developing countries are mentioned across all pillars of action -- mitigation, adaption, finance, technology capacity and transparency. That is very important thing," he said.

Javadekar said India has been stressing on two important concepts -- climate justice and sustainable lifestyles – in the last one year.

"More importantly for India Prime Minister Narendra Modi has always espoused cause of sustainable lifestyle and climate justice. Both have found mention in the preamble of the text. That is an important achievement for India.  These two concepts were put up very forcefully by India in the last one year," he said.

India wants the concept of 'differentiation' to be clearly spelt out in all elements of the agreement and has been taking the position that developed countries must have a greater responsibility to accept emission reduction targets while they must be the only ones to mandatorily provide financial resources.

Hollande and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon were present at the unveiling of the draft.

"The text is ambitious and realistic. France calls upon nations to adopt first universal agreement on climate change," Hollande said.

"You have to take the final step, the decisive step which allows us to reach the goal," he said, adding that all countries cannot be satisfied with the agreement.

Fabius said if the text is adopted by the nations, it will mark a "historic turning point".

"The focus is not on red lines but on green lines," he said.

The UN chief said people and countries are threatened as never before.

"The end is in sight. Let us now finish the job. The whole world is watching. Billions of people are relying on your wisdom. The time has come to acknowledge that national interests are best served by acting in the global interest," Ban said.

"Nature is sending urgent signals. People and countries are threatened as never before. We have to do as science dictates. We must protect the planet that sustains us. For that, we need all hands on deck," he said.

Ban said he was counting on developed countries to provide financial resources for mitigation and adaptation and to embark decisively on a low-emissions pathway.

At the same time, he urged developing nations to play an increasingly active role, according to their capacities.

"The solutions to climate change are on the table. They are ours for the taking," he said.

The text reserves an increased role of adaptation while recognises the need for loss and damage, he said.

Fabius said the agreement will serve major causes like food security, public health, combating poverty and peace.

"Our responsibility to history is immense. Nobody here wants Copenhagen to be repeated," he said referring to the failure of talks at Conference of Parties in Copenhagan in 2009.

Reacting to the draft, US Secretary of State John Kerry said, "It should be good, but we'll see. Little things can happen, but we think it's teed up," Kerry told reporters.

According to observers, in the final draft negotiating text India's "red lines" are protected.

India's points on recognising sustainable lifestyles, sustainable pattern of consumption and climate justice find place in the preamble of the text, they said.

India's wish that the differentiation (as how to share responsibility between developed and developing countries while taking climate actions) should be maintained in all elements of the UN convention is there in the text.

These elements are mitigation, adaptation, climate finance, transfer of technology, capacity building and transparency.

The text also has the objective of keeping the rise in global temperatures by the year 2100 compared with pre-industrial times "well below" 2 degrees Celsius and "endeavor to limit" them even more, to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

The text also says that all nations "shall" prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions that it intends to achieve.

The text said that developed countries shall continue taking the lead by undertaking economy wide emission reduction targets while the developing countries should continue enhancing their mitigation efforts and are also encouraged to move over time towards economy wide emission reduction or limitation targets in the light of "different national circumstances".

On the finance issue, developed countries have agreed that they will raise financial resources and help developing countries in both mitigation and adaptation.

However, it will be voluntary for developing countries, if they want to do so.

Every country has to submit Nationally Determined Contributions in five year cycles.

The French foreign minister while delivering his speech in the morning session where the final draft was introduced described the text as a "balanced" one.

Terming the proposed draft agreement as "differentiated, fair, sustainable, dynamic, balanced and legally binding," Fabius said it also acknowledges the notion of "climate justice" and takes into account the countries' differentiated responsibilities and their respective capabilities in the light of different national circumstances.

"It confirms our central, even vital objective of holding the increase in average temperature to well below 2 degrees Celsius and pursuing efforts to limit this increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius, which would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change.

"It sets an ambitious but necessary long-term target. It makes reducing greenhouse gas emissions everyone's responsibility, through the submission or updating, every five years, of national contributions, which in this case can only become more ambitious," he said.

Fabius said that the text also focuses heavily on adaptation to the effects of climate change and recognises the "permanent and preeminent" need for cooperation on loss and damage.

"The draft decision of our Conference stipulates that the USD 100 billion per year planned for 2020 will need to be a floor for post-2020 and that a new quantified target will need to be set by 2025 at the latest.

"This text should strengthen mutual confidence between the nations thanks to a stronger transparency framework, which takes into account the capabilities of each country and is based on the existing systems," he said.

The text, Fabius said provides for a global stock-take of the progress made every five years, which will enable to take collective action if efforts fall short of the targets set.

"If it is adopted, this text will therefore mark a historical turning point," Fabius said.