President Barack Obama reached out to Modi on Tuesday in an attempt to break the deadlock at the climate summit, where the responsibility of developing countries such as India in tackling rising global temperatures has been a sticking point. He spoke to Modi hours before US Secretary for State John Kerry and environment minister Prakash Javadekar held a 45-minute meeting in Paris. Sources said the meeting between Kerry and Javadekar failed to reach a compromise on a number of issues, including redefining the differentiation between the rich and the developing world in “changed circumstances” and a proposed review and verification of climate action plans. “There was very little agreement on most issues,” a negotiator from a developing country said. –Chetan Chauhan, Hindustan Times, 10 December 2015
The US has unexpectedly joined a large group of countries trying to isolate China and India in the tense home stretch of UN talks in Paris on a new global climate agreement. The group, which has dubbed itself the “high ambition coalition”, claims to include about half the 195 nations involved in the two-week Paris meeting known as COP21, which is due to end on Friday. “This is our moment and we need to make it count,” said Todd Stern, the US climate envoy, as he joined ministers from the EU, Latin America, Africa and Pacific islands at a news conference on Wednesday evening to demand that the new accord contain measures that China, India, Saudi Arabia and other nations are trying to resist. –Pilita Clark and Michael Stothard, Financial Times, 10 December 2015
What at the outset the French hosts called a “week of hope,” is now coming to an end with frenetic, caffeine-fueled all-nighters aimed at beating the clock. The task is now nothing less than persuading many of the 196 countries represented here to give up on dearly held red lines to deliver a ground-breaking global deal on combatting climate change after 20 years of trying. To speed things along, Fabius has also already recommended that legal and linguistic experts start reviewing “clean” sections over which there is no dispute. But the remaining sticking points are significant, and from this point forward will likely require the direct involvement of, and concessions from, political leaders at home. –Nahlah Ayed, CBC News, 10 December 2015
Weary envoys from 195 nations battling to forge an accord to save mankind from disastrous global warming emerged Thursday from all-night talks facing an imminent deadline with deal-breaking rows still unresolved. Fabius has set an ambitious deadline of Friday for the deal to be reached, and negotiators met through the night to debate the text at a sprawling conference venue in Le Bourget on the northern outskirts of Paris. But Fabius announced no breakthroughs in any of the biggest arguments — primarily between developing and developed nations — that have derailed previous UN efforts to forge an accord. –Karl Malakunas, AFP, 10 December 2015
