Press notice from Green Peace on the appearance of its giant polar bear at COP21.

"Today, the famous Greenpeace giant polar bear was brought to Le Bourget to add pressure on governments to agree an ambitious climate deal.

“With less than three days remaining, negotiations must not stall. Ministers have to bring ambition to the long term goal, so that we have full decarbonisation by 2050, and financial support for the most vulnerable,” said Kumi Naidoo, Executive Director of Greenpeace.

The bear stood over civil society activists and representatives of Indigenous Peoples from north and south, demanding climate action and for the rights of Indigenous Peoples to be specifically included in the text.

“It is unfair that the rights of Indigenous Peoples are not included in the text,” said Vyzcheslav Shadrin from the Yukagir people in the Russian Far East. “We are on the frontline of climate change, and are suffering its first and worst impacts. So we have a right to be recognised in this international forum.”

Kumi Naidoo, Greenpeace Executive Director, added:

“As we fight to protect the climate, we must also fight for the rights of Indigenous Peoples, who are on the frontline of the growing climate crisis.


“We must come together to protect the people who are suffering first and most brutally from the impacts of climate change around the world. This means the rights of Indigenous Peoples to be upheld which is why Greenpeace supports its specific inclusion. We must push our elected leaders to respect the calls of justice and push for a world powered by renewable energy rather than dirty and dangerous fossil fuels. When this polar bear roars, she roars for billions of people, and she roars loudest for those on the frontlines of climate change.” "

Following is a statement by Andrew Steer, President and CEO, World Resources Institute:
"The doubling of public commitments for adaptation is a very helpful development as we head into the final days in Paris. These funds will increase the total pot of climate finance available to support vulnerable countries and shows the U.S. commitment to reach a strong outcome. Climate finance is a sensible investment to increase resilience and reduce instability abroad.
“As he has done many times in his distinguished career, Secretary Kerry is showing a steadfast commitment to tackling the climate challenge.
“We are entering crunch time. All countries should come together in a spirit of solidarity to achieve as strong an agreement as possible.”

PARIS, Dec 9 (Reuters) - The United States will double grant funding it provides to help developing countries adapt to climate change to around $860 million a year, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will announce the new financing pledge during a speech on Wednesday at the U.N. global climate conference in Paris, where negotiators from 195 countries are working to reach an agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020 by this weekend.

"There are a number of countries in a variety of circumstances that have no choice but to invest in efforts to adapt right now," said the official, who provided details of the plan on condition of anonymity. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Jonathan Leff)

Fabius - The text strives to reflect as faithfully as possible the compromises that are emerging.

Fabius - We have almost come to the end of our work....a compromise has been identified for capacity building for mitigation and adaptation
almost concluded on issue of adaptation to climate change impacts

Here's a link to the draft agreement - unfccc.int