Minister turns up heat ahead of Paris climate talks

With less than three months until a United Nations climate change conference in Paris, Swiss Environment Minister Doris Leuthard has demanded ministers have a working document at their disposal as soon as possible.  “We really want a text right now,” Leuthard said at a press conference on Monday after a three-day preparatory meeting for the UN’s 21st climate conference. “The ministers need a working document in order to approve or reject ideas and to pursue some lines of work over others,” she said.  “We’ve put a bit of pressure on the chief negotiators and on the French government.”  Nevertheless, Leuthard said she was optimistic. “I still have the feeling that we’re close to an agreement.”  Over the weekend, a group of 18 donor countries discussed general questions of climate finance, especially the methodology of climate finance before and after 2020.  The meeting was chaired by Leuthard and the US’s Caroline Atkinson, Deputy National Security Advisor for ...