Despite Discord, Climate Talks in Warsaw End With Last-Minute Deals

After more than 36 hours of continuous negotiations, delegates at the U.N. climate talks in Warsaw agreed to two last-minute deals that kept alive hopes for staving off climate change. At talks that ended Saturday, delegates agreed to a proposed system for pledging cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. They also gave support to a new treaty mechanism for tackling the human cost of the effects of global warming, including floods, rising seas, and stronger storms, The New York Times reports. Parties also agreed that countries will have until early 2015 to lay out their plans for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Those plans are to be published in advance of a major U.N. climate meeting in Paris, set for late 2015, at which international leaders hope to reach an agreement to curb global emissions starting in 2020. Discord and acrimony characterized the talks, during which a vocal negotiating bloc emerged among developing countries, including India, China, and Saudi Arabia. This bloc forced the watering down of key aspects of the deal, according to the Guardian.