Mission 2018: bring the Paris climate pact to life

Apr. 28, 2018 | 09:42 AM

This handout image obtained via the Nature Publishing website on April 24, 2018 shows melt ponds on the Arctic sea ice in the Central Arctic. (AFP PHOTO / NATURE PUBLISHING / ALFRED WEGENER INSTITUT)

PARIS: Front-line negotiators from more than 190 nations gathering for climate talks in Bonn on Monday face a daunting task: bring the 2015 Paris Agreement to life.

The world's only climate treaty pledges to cap global warming at "well under" two degrees Celsius and prevent manmade CO2 from leeching into the atmosphere by century's end.

The window of opportunity for holding the rise in temperature at 2 C (3.6 F) -- much less the 1.5 C ceiling the Paris pact vows to consider -- has grown perilously narrow.

Under pressure, the rift between rich and developing countries that stymied climate talks for more than two decades before the 2015 accord put all nations on the same page has reemerged.

When it comes, however, to the rich-nation promise of $100 billion (82 billion euros) per year in climate finance from 2020, the issue cuts the other way.

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