As COP21 enters its second and final week of negotiations, the French Presidency has set up a work-plan to streamline what will be ‘marathon’ negotiations to reach a global climate treaty by Friday this week.
COP21 and French Foreign Minister, Laurent Fabius was full of optimism Monday when he described the week ahead as ‘The Week of Hope’
“It is my hope that this Week of Hope will be completed with a universal treaty. We hope to reach a consensus and I will use my conviction and determination to bring this to bear, said Fabius while addressing the Joint High Level segment that will kick-start the ministerial negotiation.
The Conference of Parties plenary met Saturday afternoon to adopt the work-plan proposed by the French Presidency – to establish an open-ended single-setting group to conduct informal consultations.
“The objective of these consultations will be to make progress on the text of the agreement and to facilitate compromise. The work of this group should lead to a draft agreement and draft decisions, which will then be forwarded to the COP for adoption on December, 11, in strict conformity with procedures.”
“I will chair this group myself, which we could call the "Paris Committee". I will convene the group at least once each day, and more frequently if necessary, said Minister Fabius.
He said the group will work in accordance with three principles - nothing will be agreed until everything is agreed, inclusiveness and transparency.
“This group will determine the time at which text will be transmitted to a legal and linguistic review group, which I also propose to establish. This review is necessary to forward a final text to the COP in a timely manner.
To help move the negotiations forward, the French Presidency also proposed four informal working groups on cross-cutting issues whose resolution is key to reaching an agreement.
Minister Fabius has appointed several of his colleagues to conduct these informal consultations with Parties on his behalf.
“I have no doubt that we will benefit from their authority, competence and sense of compromise, said Minister Fabius.
As hosts of this important global climate meeting, France assured all the Parties the process will be transparent, inclusive and Party-driven.
To ensure transparency, stock-taking meetings will be convened in plenary sessions of the COP to take stock of progress made in the coming few days.
An open-ended legal and linguistic review group, composed of a core team of 11 representatives (two from each of the five UN regional groups and one representative of the small island developing States) has been set up to constantly review the draft text.
“This is to ensure that the text is clear in legal and linguistic terms, including between the versions in the six official languages, and to ensure that there is full coherence and consistency between provisions in and across articles, said Minister Fabius.
Ministers now take over the negotiations to provide political guidance and endorsement to the draft Paris Outcome agreed to by 195 Parties last week.