BONN, Germany (AP) – U.N. climate talks are plodding ahead toward a worldwide deal to fight global warming, with negotiators agreeing to start work on a draft agreement.
A weeklong session in Bonn finished Friday with the two officials leading the talks getting the green light to turn a sprawling negotiating text into a coherent draft by the next round of talks in October. The deal is expected to be signed in Paris in December.
Crunch issues that remain include resolving how to share the burden of slashing climate-warming carbon emissions and helping poor countries adapt to rising sea levels and other effects of global warming.
The U.S., European Union and other developed nations want the new deal to reflect evolving national circumstances so countries take on more responsibilities as their economies and their carbon emissions grow. But India and others want to retain the firewall between developed and developing countries that’s been at the core of previous agreements, requiring only developed nations to set binding targets to cut emissions.
“Some countries have a GDP per capita of more than $20,000, others have just $400,” India’s chief negotiator Ravi Prasad told The Associated Press. “There is a clear differentiation in the real world … so how can we not have a difference in how we deal with climate change?”