CLIMATE CHANGE-BONN "Interesting progress" at preparatory talks for climate deal, says UN

Record ID: 150868

  • Title: CLIMATE CHANGE-BONN "Interesting progress" at preparatory talks for climate deal, says UN
  • Date: 11th June 2015
  • Summary: BONN, GERMANY (JUNE 11, 2015) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF BUILDING WITH U.N. FLAGS FLYING OUTSIDE UNFCCC EXECUTIVE SECRETARY, CHRISTIANA FIGUERES, ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE JOURNALISTS FIGUERES SPEAKING TO SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR THE 2015 PARIS CLIMATE CONFERENCE, LAURENCE TUBIANA SIGN READING (English): "UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCE" (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNFC
  • Embargoed: 26th June 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA8BI84D0561GYNALZRXDWTH014
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Countries preparing the U.N. climate change COP conference in Paris are making "interesting progress", the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, Christiana Figueres said at the end of several days of climate change talks in the German city of Bonn on Thursday (June 11).
    "It is really important to understand that this is a step-by-step process and that there has been very interesting progress here with the text," she said.
    But several nations expressed growing unease on Thursday that time is running short to resolve disputes about global warming after the U.N. talks ended with little progress towards an international deal to combat climate change meant to be agreed in December.
    Delegates representing almost 200 countries trimmed a few pages off an 89-page draft text at the June 1-11 preparatory meeting in Bonn, but stopped short of confronting major underlying issues such as whether to set a global goal for phasing out greenhouse gases this century.
    Several governments called for a faster pace, noting there were only two preparatory sessions left before a summit in Paris in December meant to agree a global deal.
    The U.N. panel of climate scientists says it is at least 95 percent probable that most global warming since 1950 is caused by human activities, led by burning fossil fuels.
    Figueres praised the Group of Seven industrialised nations who agreed during a meeting in Germany earlier in the week to wean their energy-hungry economies off carbon fuels.
    "I think one very interesting piece that came out of the G7 communiqué that speaks to the growing awareness -- certainly here by parties but of everybody else -- the growing awareness of vulnerability and the risks that we are trying to manage here, so the G7 commitment to give 400 million extra people access to direct or indirect insurance is absolutely critical and is something that the insurance industry has taken on as their responsibility," she said.
    On Monday (June 8), G7 leaders set a goal of phasing out global fossil fuel emissions by 2100. The U.N. talks are deeply split about whether to follow suit.
    Many developing nations favour a tougher deadline of 2050 for shifting to renewable energies while some OPEC producers would prefer to omit any deadlines at all.
    Figueres added that climate change is no easy subject for the world's nations to deal with.
    "This is a very, very complex issue even for those of us who live and breathe and eat this. It's very difficult for us to explain it to each other. I mean, I get on the phone to my daughters, you know, they've eaten climate change since they were born, and even for them, you know, for me to explain it's very difficult, let alone to someone else who is completely out there," she said.
    Negotiators meet again in August and October but delegates say the toughest issues will be left for Paris, including aid for developing nations and how to make the deal legally binding.
    Nations asked the co-chairs of the meeting to work on the draft text before the next meeting.
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