U.N. climate talks brought forward as new report warns of record heat

Science

U.N. climate talks brought forward as new report warns of record heat

Negotiations for a world pact to curb global warming will start in Paris Sunday, a day ahead of schedule, the U.N. said Wednesday as a report warned that 2015 could become the hottest year on record. The crunch U.N. summit will be officially opened by more than 150 heads of state and government, making it the biggest gathering of world leaders on climate in history. The fragile state of Earth’s climate system was underlined in a report by the U.N.’s weather agency in Geneva, which found that because of manmade global warming and a strong El Niño, Earth’s wild weather this year is bursting the annual heat record.

Negotiators are tasked with sealing a deal that will cap average global warming at 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit over pre-Industrial Revolution levels. But the haggle has been notoriously long and complex, hampered by rows over how to share the burden of curbing fossil-fuel gases that stoke warming. Key issues — ranging from finance to the legal status of the accord — need to be settled by the time the conference closes on Dec. 11. The European Union warned Wednesday there was “still a lot of work” to do and feared a lowest-common-denominator outcome.