Week one of COP 21, the UN climate conference in Paris, concluded with the adoption of a draft “outcome.”  You can read it at CFACT.org.

This was the must-have first step if the UN is to have a chance of adopting a full treaty this week.

While the COP (Conference of the Parties) reached a milestone, the draft is riddled with unresolved divisive issues. The draft contains multiple versions of many key provisions within square brackets and placeholders for future text.

For instance, did the UN adopt a draft of a binding treaty or a toothless nonbinding agreement? No one in Paris can say for sure.

Resolving these disputes is what the negotiators in Paris will be working on as they reconvene at a ministerial level.

It remains to be seen whether the COP can bridge all divides and agree to a final text.

Two factors argue the UN might pull it off.

The U.S. never ratified the the Kyoto Protocol, the prior UN climate treaty. The negotiators in Paris want a great deal of money from the U.S. under a new climate regime. With the scientific evidence mounting against the UN’s position on global warming, and U.S. elections looming, they are well aware that their best chance is to adopt something now, with Barack Obama still in office.

With no chance of the U.S. Senate ratifying a climate treaty, the key goal of U.S. negotiators is to attempt to get a nonbinding agreement they can try and slip past the Senate without a vote.

Read the article “COP 21 Agrees on Draft Climate Agreement, Divisions Remain” on cfact.org.