France releases UN climate-rescue pact, all eyes on rising temperatures

Paris: French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius unveiled the final draft negotiating text of the climate deal on Saturday at the Paris Climate change conference. He said the "final" draft of a global climate pact would be legally binding.

Fabius also said that the accord would aim to keep the rise in global temperatures "well below" 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre-industrial times to the end of this century and "endeavor to limit" them even farther, to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

That was a key demand of small island nations and other poor and vulnerable countries.

Fabius' comments came Saturday as delegates neared the end of two weeks of talks aimed at producing the first international pact asking all countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions.

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UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made an impassioned entreaty to world diplomats negotiating a potential accord to fight global warming.

"The whole world is watching. Billions of people are relying on your wisdom," he said Saturday.

He also said that: "The time has come to acknowledge that national interests are best served by acting in the international interest."

"We have to do as science dictates. We must protect the planet that sustains us. We need all our hands on deck," he spoke as the new, potentially final draft of the accord was presented.