Paris climate conference to start a day early, says UN

Paris, France:  A crunch climate conference will start in Paris a day earlier than planned, with negotiators gathering on Sunday already to start thrashing out a pact, the UN’s climate forum said on Wednesday.

More than 150 heads of state and government are scheduled to attend the official opening on Monday, the French government added. An “early opening of the session will offer an opportunity to make the best possible use of the very limited time available to finalise negotiations,” the UN climate change secretariat said in a statement. The negotiations themselves “will be resumed on Sunday 29 November at 5pm” (1600 GMT) at Le Bourget airport outside the capital, the secretariat said. [caption id=“attachment_2309324” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  United Nations. Reuters[/caption] The November 30 huddle in the French capital, still reeling from November 13 jihadist attacks which claimed 130 lives, will draw “more than 150 heads of state and government,” the French cabinet said in a statement. It will be the biggest-ever climate gathering of heads of state and government. On Tuesday, the foreign ministry had said 147 leaders would attend. They will give back-to-back, three-minute statements on Monday, and depart the same day. Bureaucrats who have been hammering out a blueprint for the last six years will continue drafting, and in the final days hand over to ministers to make the deadlock-breaking political decisions required to unlock a deal. The highly-anticipated marathon meeting is scheduled to close on December 11. The goal is for an agreement that will cap average global warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above mid-19th century levels, by curbing climate-altering greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel use. AFP