Diplomats must have a draft text for upcoming United Nations climate talks ready by Feb. 13, co-chairs of the Paris negotiations said.
The news comes as negotiators are set to meet in Geneva between Feb. 8 and 13 for the first time since a December draft round in Lima, Peru. The Lima effort brought long-simmering tensions over the responsibilities between rich and poor nations to the surface, with many observers leaving believing a tough road to Paris awaited.
“To this end, the contact group will be tasked to streamline language and eliminate redundancies and duplications, better present alternatives and divergences, and clarify, to the extent possible, proposals and concepts,” co-chairs Ahmed Djoghlaf from Algeria and Dan Reifsnyder of the United States said of the draft text effort, according to publication Responding to Climate Change.
The nearly 200 nations at the Paris talks later this year will try to strike a deal governing emissions beyond 2020. The hopes are that the deal will put the world on a path toward limiting emissions enough to prevent the world from warming 2 degrees Celsius by 2100.
Long-time observers have said getting a draft text out early is key to getting countries moving in the same direction ahead of the negotiations. Many want to avoid the blunders experienced in 2009 in Copenhagen, Demark, where nations left without a climate deal. The effort was labeled a failure and has led to much skepticism about sealing a global climate deal.
