Negotiators at the U.N. climate summit are resting after the first week of talks ended on a sour note Saturday when the U.S. sided with Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait in blocking endorsement of a key scientific report on global warming.
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Scientists and campaigners expressed frustration Sunday at diplomats’ inability to welcome the recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change laying out the consequences of a 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) rise in average global temperatures.
A leading author of the study, Valerie Masson-Delmotte, asked in a tweet Sunday: “What is so disturbing in our (report) that four governments cannot even ‘welcome’ its findings?”
Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said high-level talks next week will likely see “more contentious discussions like we saw last night.”
