UN talks get down to business over climate deal

The world's nations gathered in Morocco Nov. 7 to flesh out a landmark climate deal that promises to save humanity from itself. A shadow was cast over the meeting due to the unpredictable result of the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 8. 

The just-activated Paris Agreement, inked in the French capital last December, is the first treaty binding all countries, rich and poor, to halt global warming, caused mainly by the burning of coal, oil and gas.

"It is now the roadmap in the fight against climate change," said Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru's former environment minister and head of climate and energy for green group WWF, AFP reported.

But as 15,000 negotiators, CEOs and activists from 196 nations gathered in Marrakesh settle in for the 12-day U.N. talks, all eyes are on the United States, where voting Nov. 8 could thrust climate denier Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump into the White House.  

When it comes to global warming, the stakes could hardly be higher, U.S. President Barack Obama warned.
"All the progress we've made on climate change" - including the Paris pact, decades in the making - "is going to be on the ballot," he told TV talk show host Bill Maher on Nov. 4.

The Republican candidate cannot carry out his threat to "cancel" the still-fragile accord, but a Trump victory could cripple it, AFP cited experts in Marrakesh as agreeing.

Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton has vowed to uphold Obama's domestic energy policies and international climate commitments.

Procedural issues

In Marrakesh, front-line diplomats must roll up their sleeves and work through scores of procedural issues that will make the difference between success and failure.

The most...