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MARRAKETCH, Morocco, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- A bitter row over the fate of a key fund aiming to help developing countries cope with adverse effects of climate change may prevent the Marrakech climate talks from ending as scheduled, delegates here warned Friday.
Informal consultations have been extended into the night, forcing Moroccan Foreign Minister Salaheddine Mezouar, president of the 22nd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22), to postpone his plan to leave the southern Moroccan city.
Speaking at a plenary session of the conference, Mezouar reiterated his appeal to all related parties to accelerate their talks so that the annual climate conference can conclude on Friday as scheduled.
Mamadou Honadia, head of the Burkina Faso delegation, told Xinhua that negotiators have been trying to bridge their differences over the fate of the so-called Adaptation Fund, which was set up under the Kyodo Protocol.
Developing countries are worried about the fate of the Adaptation Fund since the Kyodo Protocol will expire in 2020 and be replaced by the Paris Agreement, he said.
"The Adaptation Fund is dedicated to financing adaptation concrete projects," Honadia said. "We don't want this fund to disappear."
Developing countries demand a change in the wording related to the fund in a draft decision to be adopted by the conference, Honadia revealed, adding that the document must make it clear that the Adaptation Fund "shall" serve the Paris Agreement.
An explanatory note released earlier Friday by Mezouar says that the fund "should" serve the Paris deal.
Developed countries and developing countries have also been in disagreement over when the first conference of Parties to the Paris Agreement (CAM1) will resume and its agenda.
Many developing countries which have not yet ratified the Paris Agreement, such as Burkina Faso, demand that CAM1 be suspended so that they could attend it as a signatory instead of as an observer, Honadia said.
He said that developing countries hope CAM1 would have a balanced agenda and discuss all major issues under the Paris Agreement, including mitigation, adaption and technology transfer.
The agenda under discussion mainly focuses on the implementation of nationally determined contributions and is thus in favor of developed countries, he added.
"If the text is not well balanced, taking into consideration developed countries' positions and developing countries' positions, it will really be difficult," Honadia said.
The two-week conference has brought together thousands of government officials as well as representatives from international organizations, the civil society and businesses. It aims to pave the way for the implementation of the Paris Agreement.
The next UN climate conference, COP23, will be hosted in Bonn, Germany, but presided over by Fiji.
On Friday, Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama reiterated his appeal for U.S. president Donald Trump to abandon the view that global warming was a 'hoax" and to take responsibility in combating climate change.
"A global scientific consensus is that it (global warming) is very real," Bainimarama said.
"We must act more decisively and avert catastrophe," he said, inviting the U.S. president-elect to visit Fiji and to see for himself the effects of climate change.
"We in the Pacific, in common with the whole world, look to America for its leadership and for its engagement and assistance on climate change," Bainimarama said.
"As the second biggest carbon emitter on earth, the United States must take responsibility for contributing to our collective response to this crisis and show leadership at this critical stage," Bainimarama said.
On his campaign trail, Trump had said he would pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement on climate change and stop funding international climate actions.
