Disputes at Paris Climate Talks Push Conference into Weekend

High-stakes climate talks aiming to craft a global accord to combat climate change stumbled Friday with China and many other nations refusing to yield ground, forcing host France to extend the international summit by a day to overcome stubborn divisions.

The difficult talks will continue as diplomats try to overcome disagreements over how — or even whether — to share the costs of fighting climate change and shift to clean energy on a global scale.

Negotiators from more than 190 countries are trying to do something that's never been done: reach a deal for all countries to reduce man-made carbon emissions and cooperate to adapt to rising seas and increasingly extreme weather caused by human activity.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry zipped in and out of negotiation rooms as delegates broke into smaller groups overnight to iron out their differences.  After talks wrapped up at nearly 6 a.m. local time Friday, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he is aiming for a final draft Saturday.

“There is still work to do … things are going in the right direction,” Fabius said."  This represents all of the countries in the world and it's completely normal to take a bit of time, so we will shift it."

The two-week talks, the culmination of years of U.N.-led efforts for a long-term climate deal, had been scheduled to wrap up Friday.  U.N. climate conferences often run past deadline, given the complexity and sensitivity of each word in an international agreement, and the consequences for national economies.

Negotiators from China, the U.S. and other nations are haggling over how to share the burden of fighting climate change.  Some delegates said a new draft accord presented late Thursday by Fabius allowed rich nations to shift the responsibility to the developing world.

Read more at Disputes at Paris Climate Talks Push Conference into Weekend