World leaders expected to sign climate change agreement as Paris summit is extended

Environment Cabinet Secretary Judi Wakhungu (left) with her Kenyan delegation at the Climate Change summit in Paris on December 11, 2015. PHOTO | EUNICE KILONZO | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The chair of the summit Friday said negotiations were ongoing to finalise the global agreement, stating that: "I will not present the text Friday evening, as I had thought, but Saturday morning."
  • Interestingly, the previous drafts had texts in different articles in brackets denoting yet to be agreed statements but currently, the brackets are fewer, an indication that the agreement is nigh.
  • The key contentious issues are the financing mechanisms in place for poorer countries to handle climate change, how countries’ carbon emissions are tracked as well as transparency.

The Paris climate summit, also COP21, which was to end on Friday has been extended to Saturday.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, while making the announcement said: “There is still work to do.”

The chair of the summit Friday said negotiations were ongoing to finalise the global agreement, stating that: "I will not present the text Friday evening, as I had thought, but Saturday morning."

The agreement seeks to curb global warming but would only come to force in 2020.

So far, three drafts of the agreement have been published, the first last Saturday with new versions appearing on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday night.

CONTENTIOUS ISSUES

As the negotiations continue, the text has been shrunken from 29 pages to the current 27 pages.

Interestingly, the previous drafts had texts in different articles in brackets denoting yet to be agreed statements but currently, the brackets are fewer, an indication that the agreement is nigh.

The key contentious issues are the financing mechanisms in place for poorer countries to handle climate change, how countries’ carbon emissions are tracked as well as transparency.

There were also concerns over language use and a session on Thursday was set aside for linguistics analysis of the text. Here words such as ‘should’ were put side by side with ‘shall’.

UN climate change chief, Christiana Figueres, said the Thursday draft was “still incomplete because it doesn’t close all the issues, the political crunch issues, as expected in any negotiation, remain open: differentiation, finance, and certain aspects of ambition and transparency.”

If adopted, the Paris deal will replace the Kyoto protocol, the world’s only legally binding international climate treaty.

KENYA’S PLEDGE

The Kyoto Protocol which initially covered only developed countries, such as those of the European Union and Australia who were required to cut emissions by 2020.

As it is, more than 170 countries have submitted their climate pledges, also Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), to the UN of how to combat climate change.

Kenya has pledged to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.

However, these INDCS according to scientists would still see the world warm by up to three degrees Celsius. That is more than the two degrees currently on the negotiated draft.