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BERLIN, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- The final round of United Nations climate talks this year started in Bonn Germany on Monday amid developing countries' criticism about the latest slimmed draft for a global climate deal set to be thrashed out in Paris in December.
Only five days were left for negotiators to hammer out what a new climate deal will look like before they head for Paris. Earlier this month, the two co-chairs of the talks slimmed the deal draft to 20 pages from its initial version of over 80 pages, in a bid to provide a clear basis for the negotiations.
The new draft, however, received criticism from developing countries as it was vague in key issues such as finance support from developed countries and dropped many of their demands. It also failed to clarify how it would reflect the different responsibilities of emission reduction among developed and developing countries.
"It is extremely unbalanced and lopsided to the extent that jeopardize the interests and position of developing countries," said "G77 and China" group which represents 134 developing countries in a statement, adding that the group will restore its proposals in the text in a "constructive manner".
Some non-governmental organizations also said that the text was biased. "The new text drafted by the co-chairs was another example of highhandedness that is biased towards the interests of the U.S. and other developed countries, leaving behind the needs of the poor and the vulnerable," said Harjeet Singh, Climate Policy Manager at ActionAid.
In a pre-session consultation meeting on Sunday, negotiators were invited to make "surgical insertions" to the text but were asked to "exercise restraint" when making the revision.
At the opening meeting of the talks on Monday, Daniel Reifsnyder, one of the co-chairmen, urged parties to insert only "must-have items".
Analysts expected that following the week-long talks, the draft text will be longer than the current version but will not balloon back to 80-odd pages as it was earlier this year.
"The whole world is looking at us," said Manuel Pulgar Vidal, Environment Minister of Peru which hosted the climate summit last year, asking parties not to "throw to the waste basket what we have in front of us", but to "work constructively to get a firm, ambitious and pragmatic outcome".
Laurence Tubiana, France's Climate Ambassador, also urged parties to "negotiate, in good faith, with respect for each others' positions" and to "produce a clear, concise, comprehensive, balanced and ambitious text" by the end of the week.
