2015年CRI Final Draft of Paris Climate Agreement Reached

"Colleagues, at this point let me turn now and say that we propose that the ADP adopt the draft conclusions as contained in document FCCC/ADP/2015/L6. Without objection? So decided 1. Thank you."

The draft, currently running to 21 pages, consists of 26 articles covering different issues include emission 2 reduction, adaptation, loss and damage, finance, technology and transparency of action and support. It will now be handed over to ministers for further discussion next week.

China's chief negotiator Su Wei explains that compared with the draft reached in Geneva in Switzerland earlier this year, this one is much more readable with fewer and clearer options on different issues.

"The progress is reflected in the brackets and the options. It is fair to say that we have made big progress in this period. The first version of the draft was over 100 pages, last year it was hundreds of pages, and it is now running to about 20 pages, more like an agreement."

The Paris agreement is expected to be the second legally-binding instrument under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a treaty which obliges developed countries to take the lead in cutting carbon emission and providing financial support to developing countries.

As negotiations 3 came to a close, the French President Francois Hollande has appealed to negotiators to put regional and national interests aside to reach a global climate deal "worthy 4 of the whole planet".

"Standing 5 before you, I'm launching an appeal for us to manage to put all interests behind us, regional interests, national interests, interests relating to our level of economic development, so that we might be worthy of the whole planet"

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon also struck a more upbeat tone, saying that never before had the chances of a deal been so good.

"Today as never before the stars are aligned 6 in favor of a strong, concerted action on climate change. The pace of climate action is quickening. Governments, cities, the private sector 7, investors 8 and the public at large increasingly understand the grave risks posed by climate change. They also see the tangible 9 benefits to be gained by early action."

Moreover, representatives of the most vulnerable low-lying nations are also showing cautious optimism about the final draft.

Tony de Brum is the Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands.

"Keeping in mind that some of the ambitions of the smaller islands states that seemed impossible just three or four years ago have found their way into the text, we are very very pleased that at least that has happened."

Even so, many divergences 10 still remain to be bridged in the agreement.

While financing any deal has been the toughest issue in the negotiations, how to reflect the principal of "common but differentiated 11 responsibility" in emissions 12 reduction, along with the problems of adaptation, and transparency still require a lot of work by participants at the conference in the coming week.

For CRI, I'm Niu Honglin.