Paris climate talks: Historic deal close, but sticking points remain

 Ministers from nearly 200 nations on Thursday (Dec 10) continue to be locked in marathon climate talks in Paris - with the deadline for a historic deal less than 24 hours away.

Almost two weeks of negotiations are just hours away from coming to an end, but French President Francois Hollande said there are "still difficulties" in the COP21 talks, especially on financing. 

The main sticking points on reaching a climate change agreement here have been over finance, long-term goals and differentiation.

“You have countries that are stinking rich and it is these stinking rich countries who have messed the environment,” said Jackson Mthembu, Chairman of the Environmental Portfolio Committee, South African Parliament. “Therefore they have a historic, moral and ethical responsibility to assist developing countries to move away from a high carbon economy to a low carbon economy.”

Historically rich countries have produced the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, but now developing nations emit half of the world’s CO2. And developed countries say the world has changed since the 1992 UN Convention’s definition of differentiation

“We’re now almost 25 years later and those classifications have changed, countries have moved from being developing countries to emerging economies with similar GDPs per capita as rich countries,” said Wendel Trio of Climate Action Network Europe.

“What developed countries say is that we can’t use that classification anymore, we need to do something that better reflects that we all have responsibilities, but those responsibilities may be different - but by country by country, not that you’re in one bloc or another.”

But despite these differences there is optimism here that a compromise can be found. The French government has been praised for its handling of this summit and for pushing for a deal to be reached.

But as the deadline approaches, the 40,000 attendees here will find out just how effective those efforts have been.