U.N. Talks Approve Climate Pact Principles

U.N. negotiators agreed in overtime talks Saturday on cornerstone issues of an ambitious, global climate pact to be signed in 2015 to stave off dangerous Earth warming.

A day after negotiations threatened to collapse, delegates adopted a modified text in Warsaw that both developed and developing countries said they could live with.

"Just in the nick of time, the negotiators in Warsaw delivered enough to keep the process moving," said climate analyst Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute.

Rich and poor nations have been at loggerheads ever since the talks opened on November 11 over who should do what to curb the march of planet warming.

In particular, they clashed over sharing responsibility for curbing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions, and about funding for vulnerable countries.

By Friday afternoon, the talks had seemed on the brink of collapse and observers warned of an impending deadlock as sleep-deprived negotiators just could not see eye to eye.

The belligerent negotiations, gathering more than 190 countries, were to have closed at 1700 GMT on Friday.

Twenty-four hours later, exhausted and stubble-bearded delegates applauded as their text, providing an outline for the road to a 2015 deal, was finally passed after an hour-long emergency huddle in the Warsaw National Stadium hosting the U.N. parley.

Notably, negotiators replaced the word "commitments" for nationally-determined emissions cuts, with "contributions".

Emerging economies like China and India had objected to any reference to "commitments" that would be equally binding to rich and poor states and did not take into account historical greenhouse gas emissions.

The issue is a fundamental one that has bedeviled the U.N. climate process since its inception 18 years ago.

Developing nations, their growth largely powered by fossil fuel combustion, blame the West's long emissions history for the peril facing the planet, and insist their wealthier counterparts carry a larger responsibility to fix the problem.

"Only developed countries should have commitments," Chinese negotiator Su Wei told fellow negotiators. Emerging economies could merely be expected to "enhance action", he said.

The West, though, insists emerging economies must do their fair share, given that China is now the world's biggest emitter of CO2, with India in fourth place after the United States and Europe.

The 2015 deal will be the first to bind all the world's nations to curbing atmosphere-polluting greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas.

The aim is to limit average global warming to 2.0 degrees Celsius (3.6 deg Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

On current emissions trends, scientists warn the Earth could face warming of 4.0 C or higher -- a recipe for catastrophic storms, droughts, floods and land-gobbling sea-level rise that would hit poor countries disproportionally hard.

The new pact, to be inked in Paris, will enter into effect in 2020.

MONEY CRUNCH

Another bone of contention in the talks is finance.

Developing countries want wealthy states to show how they intend keeping a pledge to bolster public funding for climate aid to $100 billion (74 billion euros) by 2020 -- up from $10 billion a year in the period 2010-12.

They are also demanding more immediate-term help, with China and the Group of 77 developing countries making a last-minute demand on Saturday for pledges of $70 billion per year on the table by 2016.

"This is the minimum to have clarity and a clear roadmap to achieving the $100 billion per year" said Su Wei.

Still grappling with the global economic crisis, the developed world is wary of committing to a detailed long- or short-term funding plan.

Delegates also compromised on the finance text, which "urges" developed nations to mobilize public funds "at increasing levels" from the 2010-12 period.

They finally also concluded a deal on creating a "loss and damage" mechanism that will "address" future climate harm that vulnerable countries say is no longer avoidable.

Rich nations had feared this would amount to signing a blank cheque for never-ending liability.

But parties finally managed to agree to the establishment of a "Warsaw international mechanism", whose structure, mandate and effectiveness must be reviewed in three years' time.