Paris: Paris Climate summit which was expected to finalise an accord on Friday has now been extended until Saturday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said today.
Diplomats and other top officials from more than 190 countries are trying to agree on the text of what would be an unprecedented deal for all countries to reduce man-made carbon emissions and cooperate to adapt to rising seas and increasingly extreme weather caused by human activity.
The two-week talks were scheduled to wrap up Friday. Fabius said on BFM television Friday morning, "I will not present the text Friday evening, as I had thought, but Saturday morning."
"There is still work to do," he said. "Things are going in the right direction."
Negotiators from China, the U.S. and other nations haggled into the early morning Friday over how to share the burden of fighting climate change and paying for a trillion-dollar transition to clean energy on a global scale.
A new shorter draft incorporating many key issues raised by India like "sustainable lifestyle" was yesterday unveiled after intense negotiations here as the crucial climate change conference enters into the final stretch of talks.
The 27-page draft, two pages shorter than a previous one, was released yesterday after two days of ministerial consultations and incorporates major progress as well as differences.
The draft presented by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius includes key issues which India has raised like "sustainable lifestyle", principles based on equity and common but differentiated responsibilities as is there in the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC).
India has earlier attacked the developed countries for adopting "extravagant" lifestyles compared to its "need based consumption" and has been asserting that that only "sustainable" lifestyles can mitigate the climate change challenge.
Sources in the Indian government said that although many issues raised by the country have found a place, there are still some issues that needed to be worked out.
(With inputs from PTI)
