Hard Climate Bargaining In Paris

Crunch time in Paris. We’ll look at the where negotiations stand on a much anticipated, big climate deal.

It is crunch time now at the Paris climate talks. Almost time to stand and deliver. For all the promises and expectations to be met - or fall short. Out front, it’s been mainly smiles and high determination. Solemn vows to get it done. To draw a line on climate change. In the back rooms, it’s hardball. Who will really do how much to rein in global warming? Who will check that promises are kept? Who will help pay for poor nations to do their part? Talks like these have fallen apart before. Hopes are high this time, but it’s hard. This hour On Point,  inside the crunch time negotiations in Paris.
-- Tom Ashbrook

John Cushman, editor and reporter for InsideClimate News. Author of "Keystone and Beyond." (@jackcushmanjr)

Timmons Roberts, professor of environmental studies and sociology at Brown University. Senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Co-author, with David Ciplet, of "Power in a Warming World." (@TimmonsRoberts)

Adam Goldstein, senior at Emory University, studying history and business. Attending the COP21 talks as an observer. (@adamgoldstein94)

InsideClimate News: U.S. and Others Want Frequent Emission Checks as Part of Paris Deal — "As negotiations for a new worldwide climate agreement move into high gear, the attention is focused not just on how ambitious the treaty’s goals will be, but how urgently the world’s nations will act to make them come true. The voluntary emission-cutting pledges that more than 180 countries brought to Paris do not offer deep enough reductions to guarantee a safe climate. So many negotiators, supported by climate campaigners, are now trying to get everybody to ratchet up their pledges as soon as possible."

Brookings Institution: An historic climate agreement hangs in the balance: A dispatch from the Paris climate conference — "We are headed for a crash and we need to mobilize for a truly wartime-level effort to transform our economies away from fossil fuels to efficiency and renewables. Many old tensions have flared up between the global North (wealthy) countries and the G-77 and China group of 134 developing nations in the global South."

Washington Post: Scientists just undermined a key idea behind the Paris climate talks — "As the climate negotiations in Paris proceed, many might be surprised to learn that the goal of all of this is not for the world to agree on new emissions cuts. Rather, countries have already pledged to make cuts on their own, and the task of the Paris meeting is to forge an agreement that will ensure that they are clear and transparent about these pledges and whether they’re achieving them, and that the pledges become considerably more ambitious over time."