New Draft COP21 Agreement Falls Short of a Just Climate Deal

World leaders at COP21 agreed to a new draft climate deal, released Wednesday in Paris, but the agreement is still not final two days ahead of the conclusion of the international climate summit.

The new 29-page text, presented by French Foreign Minister and COP21 President Laurent Fabius, reduces the number of potential options on outstanding key questions, but still falls far short of a just climate agreement.

French prepare to launch latest (but not final) draft agreement at #COP21 pic.twitter.com/Xn2OFXsLBg

— Ben Abraham (@benabrahamnz) December 9, 2015

According Alyssa Johl, senior attorney with the Washington-based Center for International Environmental Law, civil society rejects the draft text as a weak deal that does not act on key demands from advocates, social movements, and affected communities.

“This is not near what we had hoped for,” Johl told teleSUR English by phone from Paris in response to the new draft text. She explained that the draft does not speak to the “solidarity package” that CIEL and other organizations have been pushing for with respect to indigenous people, intergenerational equity, a just transition of the workforce, food security, and human rights issues.

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According to Johl, the deal has scrapped mention of inter-generational equity, dropping strong commitments to future generations and includes only weak language on ecosystem protection. As the REDD+ Safeguards Working Group pointed out, ecosystem integrity is only mentioned in the preamble and not in the purpose or other sections of the text.

“There are missing pieces all over in terms of human rights,” said Johl.

"Its not good enough to protect the planet, we must protect those living on it as well" @kuminaidoo #COP21 #climaterights #stand4rights

— Alyssa Johl (@AlyssaJohl) December 9, 2015

What’s more, the only mention of human rights in both the preamble of the text and Article 2, the section highlighting the purpose of the deal, appear in brackets, signaling that the text is subject to change.

“You can’t bracket our rights,” said Johl, referencing one of the slogans of the campaign to push for human rights to be central to a binding climate deal.

The release of the text comes as social organizations and climate activists rallied outside the COP21 plenary session in Paris to reject the draft deal and continue to demand strong action on climate change.

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Johl emphasized that civil society will not back down from pressuring global leaders to remedy the “all around weak” deal with respect to rights and the protection of justice in the context of climate change.

The new text tightens up the earlier 48-page draft, but it still contains hundreds of square bracket clauses indicating unresolved issues on which world leaders will have to settle their disputes by Friday.

The draft text proposes to keep global warming between 2 degrees Celsius temperature rise with the option to decide to shoot for a more ambitious limit of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the target that Latin American governments and front-line affected communities have urged leaders to adopt.

Huge civil society sit in for #climate justice beginning now in hall 2 of #COP21. pic.twitter.com/OAX5GHD82M

— IntlYouthClimateMvmt (@IYCM) December 9, 2015

The final days at COP21 will focus on resolving questions “that still need to be settled at a political level,” according to summit chief Fabius.

As Johl explained, much of the climate negotiations have taken place behind closed doors and in bilateral meetings, and at this point there will not be a line-by-line negotiation of the text.

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Many observers have noted that there are still many disagreements over the deal that could cause tension. Fabius agreed that “there is still a lot of work to do” before the summit closes.

A key area with a number of outstanding options to be agreed upon is the question of climate financing. Latin American countries have urged wealthy northern countries to take the lead on transferring funds and technology to poorer and vulnerable nations in the global south to ease their energy transitions. But it is yet to be seen whether world leaders will agree to one of three financing mobilization options in the draft deal that would see “developed country parties and other parties” commit to “mobilize financial resources beyond their previous efforts.”

From the #Arctic to the South Pacific #COP21 must protect them all. #article2 #IndigenousRising #renewables pic.twitter.com/riLUWLilKp

— Greenpeace (@Greenpeace) December 9, 2015

The draft text now includes the term “Indigenous peoples,” an addition that comes after indigenous leaders from around the world gathered in Paris Sunday to demand respect for indigenous rights and recognition of the role indigenous people play in protecting land, water, and natural resources. But Indigenous peoples are not included in the “purpose” section of the text, prompting leaders and advocates to still criticize the deal for not being strong enough on the rights of indigenous communities, some of the most vulnerable to climate change.

The much-anticipated outcome of COP21 is to reach a legally binding climate agreement to limit global temperature to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius.

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For Johl, there is no reason to be “overly optimistic” about the outcome of COP21. While there will be a final document at the end of the summit that may be legally binding, the real question is whether the deal will force world leaders to commit to changes on core issues and tackle climate change in a holistic way, Johl explained.

Above all, even though COP21 will wrap up on Friday and world leaders will pat themselves on the back for reaching an international deal, climate activists and civil society organizations know their fight is far from over.