Nations agree on climate-change blueprint at Paris COP21

Despite being plagued by conflicting proposals on many key points, the 48-page draft – drawn up over four years of tough talks – is a blueprint for what has been described as the most complex and consequential global accord ever attempted.

Ministers from across the world will descend on Paris to try, starting Monday, to transform the draft into an agreement that can rein in emissions that trap the Sun's heat, warming Earth's surface and oceans.

"In the words of Nelson Mandela, it always seems impossible until it is done," said South Africa's negotiator, Nozipho Mxakato-Diseko, after the draft was adopted to loud applause.

Scientists warn that the planet will become increasingly hostile for mankind as it warms. Rising sea levels will consume island nations and populated coastal areas, and an increase in catastrophic storms and severe droughts could produce millions of climate change refugees.

However, cutting emissions requires a shift away from burning coal, oil and gas for energy, as well as from the destruction of carbon-storing rainforests – costly exercises that powerful business interests are determined to press on with.

More than 50 personalities committed to combating climate change – from Sean Penn to US billionaire Michael Bloomberg and Chinese internet tycoon Jack Ma – gathered to lend support to the UN conference at Le Bourget on the northern outskirts of Paris.

Sean Penn says time to act  

"Perhaps this is the most exciting time in human history," Penn told a special event at the conference.

"Those illusions of having too many difficult choices have always created a chaos. And now that we live in a time where there are no choices, we have clarity. The days of dreams have given way to the days of doing."

Negotiators seem confident they can avert a repeat of a similar effort that failed spectacularly in the 2009 edition of the annual UN talks in Copenhagen, which aimed at a post-2012 deal but broke down, riven by recriminations between rich and poor nations.

It was two years after that failure, at Durban in 2011, that nations agreed to try again for a truly universal climate-saving pact.

Any deal emerging from Paris is likely to fall far short of what is needed to cap global warming at 2.0° Celsius (3.6° Fahrenheit) or below.

The key, analysts say, will be an agreement on a review every five years at which nations' commitments may be strengthened, a so-called ratcheting-up mechanism.

But there is still no agreement on fundamental issues: how fast and how far to slash greenhouse gas emissions; who shoulders most of the burden; and, critically, who should pay.

Developing countries need support to adapt to climate change

Sleep-deprived negotiators

Poorer countries have demanded financing to pay for the costly shift to renewable technologies, as well as to cope with climate change.

At stake is hundreds of billions of dollars that would need to start flowing from rich to developing nations from 2020, under the planned Paris accord.

The biggest polluting nations, such as the United States and China, want to enshrine a target of 2° Celsius above pre-Industrial Revolution levels.

But weaker nations most at risk want a much tougher target of 1.5° Celsius, which would require the global economy to shift its economy from fossil fuels and be fully reliant on renewable energy sources by 2050.

The Paris conference is scheduled to conclude on December 11. But such deadlines are frequently ignored with weary, sleep-deprived negotiators often slogging through the night to get an accord.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)