Paris climate talks: John Kerry & Prakash Javadekar talk finance, differentiation & transparency

LE BOURGET: With the Paris round of UN-sponsored climate talks entering the final phase, ministers and negotiators worked late into the night to arrive at common understandings on the politically contentious issues of differentiation, finance and ambition of efforts.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, who has been in Paris since the beginning of the week, held a second meeting with Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday morning.

The US has been active in trying to help fashion a climate deal. Washington has made it clear that a legally binding transparency mechanism is crucial to ensuring a successful and durable outcome in Paris.

The hour-long meeting held at the US delegation office focused on all outstanding issues, particularly crucial cross-cutting issues like differentiation, finance and transparency.

“We are working away. We had a very constructive meeting. I feel very good about the conversation we just had. We need to work on language,” Kerry said. Javadekar echoed the sentiment “The meeting was productive to bring about solutions,” he said.

Discussions focused on differentiation, the nature of agreement, finance, and technology, and decision provisions of the outcome text and transparency.

The minister said the negotiating teams of the two countries were working on language that would reflect a convergence. “We are hopeful that there will be more convergence emerging.”

He said India was engaging with all “important” countries and described the talks as “work in progress”. “We will ensure that differentiation remains across all pillars,” Javadekar said, stressing that differential obligations and responsibilities for industrialised and developing countries remains a core issue for India.

Late on Wednesday night, countries agreed to a consultative process led by French foreign minister and chair of the conference, Laurent Fabius.

The consultative process borrowed an innovation introduced in the Durban round of negotiations, known as the Indaba – delegations led by ministers meet together and discuss ways in which contentious issues can be resolved. Sources indicated there was little headway in the Indaba-style meeting with countries reiterating their negotiating positions.

Meanwhile, the US reached out to the major countries and groupings to arrive at common positions. On Thursday, France, which is chairing the meet, set up bilateral meetings with country and negotiating groups.