U.N. Climate Talks to Last an Extra Day

Talks on a global accord to combat climate change are taking longer than planned to overcome disputes and will last an extra day into Saturday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Friday.

He told French BFMTV he would present a new compromise text of a deal to combat global warming, aiming for an accord among almost 200 nations, on Saturday morning at around midday, not on Friday as originally planned.

“But the atmosphere is good, things are positive, things are going in the right direction,” he said. The annual U.N. climate meetings frequently stretch into the weekend.

The talks, which began on Nov. 29, had been due to end on Friday.

“[Friday] … night  was very hard,” one source said.

The talks held overnight revealed continued disputes over issues such as how to balance actions by rich and poor to limit greenhouse gases and also the long-term goals of any agreement to limit emissions, sources said.

Separately, China’s President Xi Jinping and U.S. President Barack Obama spoke by telephone and said their countries would maintain cooperation on climate change, Chinese state media reported.

Late on Thursday, Fabius unveiled a slightly trimmed 27-page draft text that removed some main points of contention.