Britain and other wealthy nations will have to pay for technology that sucks carbon dioxide from the atmosphere under a global climate change deal due to be agreed in Paris this weekend.
Island nations threatened by rising seas have persuaded almost all countries, including Britain and the US, to support a tougher target of limiting global warming to 1.5C above pre- industrial levels. Scientists said that it would be impossible to reduce emissions fast enough to prevent the temperatures rising more than 1.5C, meaning “negative emissions” technology would be needed. Countries had previously agreed to limit the increase in average global temperature to 2C.
The draft text of the Paris climate conference states that the increase should be held “well below 2C” and that countries