It was due to end on Friday, the British presidency hopes to complete COP 26 this Saturday at the end of the day.
This is after difficult negotiations on the thorny issue of financial aid to poor countries and the phasing out of fossil fuel subsidies.
A revised version of the agreement was published this Saturday morning to kick off the last round of negotiations, it requires the unanimous consent of the nearly 200 countries that signed the Paris agreement on April 22, 2016.
Since the opening of the conference on October 31 in Glasgow (Scotland), around more than 120 heads of state, announcements of all kinds have been made on the preservation of forests, methane or the end of investments in energy fossils for 19 of the participants, including France. The conference hopes to keep the more ambitious goal of the Paris agreement, which was to limit warming to 1.5 ° C compared to the pre-industrial era, the limit that scientists say would prevent global warming. worst effects.
The president of the conference called on countries to make a final effort to “keep alive” this commitment.
“We have come a long way in the past two weeks and now we need one last injection of the 'can-do' spirit, which is present at this COP, so that we can carry out this joint endeavor. ”Said Alok Sharma.
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While the world is still, according to the UN, on the “catastrophic” trajectory of a warming of + 2.7 ° C, and that many countries are still far from the energy moderation targets that they have set for themselves , the new text preserves progress in terms of emission reductions and fossil fuels, the main sources of greenhouse gases.
If the draft text resumes without change the call to Member States to increase their reduction commitments more regularly than provided for in the Paris Agreement, and no longer every five years, the language is much less restrictive, and has been added Friday the possibility of derogating from the objectives for "particular national circumstances", a point which angered the NGOs.
The second largest oil producer in the world and considered one of the nations most resistant to strong wording on fossil fuels, Saudi Arabia has deemed "viable" the project which calls on states to phase out subsidies for fossil fuels, coal. , oil and gas.
"What's on the table is still not enough"
However, positions seem frozen on the financial envelope to help the poorest countries reduce their emissions and prepare to face the devastating consequences of climate change, storms, droughts or heat waves. Rich countries have failed to meet the 12-year-old target of providing $ 100 billion per year in "climate finance" by 2020, which has undermined confidence and made some developing countries more reluctant. The new draft stipulates that by 2025, rich countries should double their adaptation funds from current levels - a step up from the previous version which did not set a date or benchmark.
“The poorest countries risk being lost to follow-up, the next few hours must change this course.
What is on the table is still not enough ", commented the NGO Oxfam, while Greenpeace called" the developed countries, in particular the United States to do more on the financing "and to" hold firm "on fossil fuels, the mention of which bristles producing countries.
The most contentious aspect remains the “loss and damage” mechanism, which would compensate poor countries for the devastation already suffered.
But the United States, in particular, is fiercely opposed to it for fear of setting a legal precedent.
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