After two intense weeks of work at the COP21 climate summit in Le Bourget together with ITUC and 400 union delegates, UNI Global Union and the trade union team make a critical assessment of the Paris agreement.

The Paris agreement marks a major leap for human kind and the result of a compromise among 195 nations.

But what is in the text ? (see the full COP21 decision and Paris agreement text available on the UNFCCC website):

Strengths:

Paris, 11th of December 2015.

The COP21 French Presidency presented a new draft agreement late at night on the 10th of december and Ministers worked all night to make progress on the agreement. The text was balanced with firms commitments to limit global temperature increase to 1.5°C raising the ambition of the previous 2°C commitment and promising scaled up finance beyond 2020 using 100 billion US dollars a year as a floor for helping developing countries to reduce their emissions and adapt to climate change.

Paris - 9 December 2015

Today a new draft agreement was presented by the COP21 French Presidency to Ministers as a basis for negotiation. The clock is ticking with only two days left before the end of COP21.

Significant progress has been made on the Preambule, adaptation, technology transfer and forests but hot-buttons issues still need to be resolved, especially on mitigation and finance.

For Philip Jennings, Secretary General of UNI Global Union, "Ministers have 24 hours to lift their game. They can do better than this."

UNI Global Union and ITUC are working hand in hand at the COP21 in Le Bourget, France near Paris to build and develop collective action with the unions being represented at the climate summit.