Nearly 200 nations have agreed to a draft deal for upcoming climate change negotiations. The preliminary agreement was reached on February 13. However, the draft does not commit to any particular path to rein in rising global temperatures. One proposal in the document calls for nations to reach peak output of greenhouse gases "as soon as possible," while another calls for net zero emissions by the year 2050.
The 86-page document will be used as the basis of an agreement to be discussed, later this year, by an international group meeting in Paris. The draft agreement was based on an earlier tentative agreement, covering 38 pages.
"Although it has become longer, countries are now fully aware of each other's positions," Christiana Figueres, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, said.
Negotiations have proven challenging, as participants try to mesh the needs of wealthy nations such as the United States, with developing nations including South Africa, and oil producing states.
The Paris meeting will take place in November, and the United Nations required that a draft proposal be negotiated six months before the international meeting. Some delegates are worried that the lengthy pact document could hinder the speed of negotiations in France.
"We have lost an opportunity for progress," Elina Bardram, European Commission delegation leader, told the press.
The year 2014 was the hottest ever recorded, and was accompanied by extreme weather events that some climatologists believe were fueled by man-made climate change.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), managed by the United Nations, has called on governments around the world to limit global warming to just 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial levels. Some observers believe measures in the current draft proposal will not be enough to meet this goal. At the current rate of warming, the change in global temperature will be between three and five degrees above that natural state by the year 2100.
"I ask you to work with efficiency and a sense of compromise. This is not a competition among us. We are just one team for one planet," Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, president of the talks and Peru's environment minister, said.
Many researchers, including those on the IPCC, predict that global warming beyond that 3.6 degree mark could have a devastating effect on the planet and human society.
The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference will commence on November 30, 2015, and continue through December 11. The goal of negotiations will be to reach a legally-binding pact on climate change, signed by nearly all the nations of the world.
