Expectations are high for a good and fair new climate change agreement at the much anticipated on-going climate change summit in Paris. Such expectations are elusive if the negotiations fail to face reality and set aside divisive national interests for the global good, humanity and the planet.

After 21 years of negotiations, hopes are high that a new climate change agreement at the 21st Conference of Parties (COP21) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UFCCC) in Paris will break new ground on saving the planet from the grave threat of climate change. However, the obstacles to reaching a deal is not on the issues perse, but how the UNFCCC negotiation process itself has not addressed or postponed critical decisions thus far, which Paris has to now resolve. Under the pretext of a new comprehensive global deal, the Paris talks are expected to address the failings of past negotiations and resolve it at one go.

The Paris talks should certainly avoid the habit of making key decisions at the eleventh hour, in many cases beyond the scheduled Friday close, up to the late hours of Sunday. At that late hour, decisions are focused on “compromise language”, by a small group of key negotiators, which then continues to haunt subsequent negotiations as to its actual meaning, intent and applicability.

… Raman Letchumanan is a Senior Fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The views expressed here are strictly his own. Dr Raman attended almost all the Climate Change Summits as a country delegate and as a representative of a regional inter-governmental organisation.