Negotiator: Climate deal typo kicked off last-minute debates

The top U.S. climate negotiator says he’s still baffled over a one-word typo in Paris that kicked off raucous, last-minute debate over a new worldwide climate pact.

The final draft version of the climate deal considered by negotiators in Paris last weekend included a line that said: “Developed country parties shall continue taking the lead by undertaking economy-wide absolute emission reduction targets.”  

{mosads}The U.S. wanted the word “shall” omitted and replaced with “should” so as to keep the deal from being legally binding and sending it to a hostile GOP-controlled Congress for ratification. 

Todd Stern, the Obama administration’s chief climate envoy, said Tuesday that the wording led to 90 minutes of “a lot of ‘hustling around’ diplomacy on the floor and in the back rooms” to change the word back to “should,” which had been in previous drafts of the deal. 

Stern told the Center for American Progress that he still doesn’t know how the word got in the draft text. 

“Somehow or other, a gremlin got into the French typewriters and computers, and the word popped out,” he said. “It is a very interesting mystery as to what happened, because somebody, somewhere, in the French or secretariat system decided to do that, because you don’t autocorrect from should to shall.”

Last-minute debates over the wording reportedly delayed the final vote on the overall climate deal, a sweeping accord designed to cut carbon emissions around the world. 

Stern said the language led to some tense debates in the waning minutes of the climate conference. The word was eventually changed to “should,” and officials approved the deal on Saturday afternoon.

“I wouldn’t say that I was deeply, deeply worried, but I was worried,” he said. 

“Whether it was a mistake or not a mistake, it was an opportunity [for countries to say], OK, you want me to agree to let this be fixed, what am I going to get? That would have unraveled the whole thing, because then you wouldn’t have been able to stop that.”