GLASGOW — A third draft of a new global climate change agreement was released on Saturday morning, and many are hoping this time is the charm.
United Nations climate change negotiations were well into overtime as diplomats worked to write a document. To reach a final agreement, all parties must approve. By tradition, if one country objects to language in the agreement, the talks can deadlock.
The goals: to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, by the end of this century, and to help the world’s poorest countries cope with climate disruptions. Beyond the 1.5-degree threshold, according to scientists, the danger of devastating heat waves, fires and floods rises significantly.
Currently, that goal is nowhere within reach.
The world has already warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, although some places have heated more than that. One analysis found that even if all the pledges countries have made in Glasgow to curb emissions this decade are kept, temperatures will still skyrocket by 2.4 degrees Celsius by 2100.
As of early Saturday, negotiators were wrestling with four major sticking points: whether countries should be asked to return next year with stronger emissions plans; how much money should go developing countries; how to structure a global market for carbon; and how, or even whether, to call for a phaseout of coal and fossil fuel subsidies.
Compelling countries to strengthen their emissions targets by the end of 2022 could be key to keeping global temperatures from rising to far more dangerous levels.
But some big greenhouse gas polluters — like China, Russia and Saudi Arabia — have been pushing back, arguing that they should not be held to the same standard as nations historically responsible for most carbon emissions, like the United States and the countries of the European Union.