A new draft pact has been presented to ministers gathered at the Paris climate conference. They now have time to deliberate, before attempting to adopt a global agreement.
With an emotional appeal, French foreign minister Laurent Fabius, who presides over the conference, presented negotiators at the Paris climate conference with a new draft agreement that appears to be very close to a final text.
“We are almost at the end of the path,” said Fabius, reminding parties of the progress made since the world community embarked on the path towards a global agreement at the climate conference in Durban.
“We recognize that with 196 parties, if everyone had wanted 100 percent of its wishes fulfilled, our collective effort would have amounted to zero,” Fabius said.
Before giving negotiators time to study the text, Fabius urged to continue in a spirit open to compromise.
All of us believe that the time has come to focus not on the red lines, but on the green lines of universal commitment,” said Fabius, receiving applause for his speech.
“Our responsibility to history is immense,” Fabius said, recalling the infamous Copenhagen climate conference at which talks on an agreement collapsed.
“The moment of truth has come,” said Fabius before passing the floor to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and French president Francois Hollande.
