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Fabius submits final Paris Pact draft

Andrea RoensbergDecember 12, 2015

French President Francois Hollande and his Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius have held emotional appeals to negotiators from over 190 countries to favorably consider a new draft for a global climate agreement.

https://p.dw.com/p/1HMJk
Frankreich Cop21 Klimagipfel in Paris
Image: Reuters/S. Mahe

With an emotional appeal, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who presides over the conference, presented negotiators at the Paris climate conference with a new draft agreement that appears to be very close to a final text.

"We are almost at the end of the road," said Fabius, reminding parties of the progress made since the world community embarked on the path towards a global agreement at the climate conference in Durban in 2011.

"We recognize that with 196 parties, if everyone had wanted 100 percent of its wishes fulfilled, our collective effort would have amounted to zero," Fabius said.

Before giving negotiators time to study the text, Fabius urged to continue in a spirit open to compromise.

All of us believe that the time has come to focus not on the red lines, but on the green lines of universal commitment," said Fabius, receiving applause for his speech.

"Our responsibility to history is immense," Fabius said, recalling the climate conference in Copenhagen in 2009, when a deal infamously collapsed.

"The moment of truth has come," said Fabius before passing the floor to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and French President Francois Hollande.

"You have the opportunity to change the world," Hollande told negotiators gathered in the plenary.

"The 12th of December can see an historic accord, and can be a date of great importance for humanity."

Hollande recalled that it was almost to the day one month ago that devastating terror attacks in Paris killed 130 people.

Moments earlier, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had opened the session amid applause.

Before announcing that the text would be made available by 12:30 UTC, and a next meeting for possible adoption of the agreement would be called for 14:45 UTC, Fabius urged negotiators to continue in a spirit open to compromise.

"All of us believe that the time has come to focus not on the red lines, but on the green lines of universal commitment," said Fabius.

"Our responsibility to history is immense," Fabius said.