The co-chairs of a multilateral group tasked with hammering out a new universal climate deal received a mandate to draft a more concise, coherent and streamlined suggested text at the close of talks last Thursday in Bonn, Germany. The new document, set to be released at the latest on 24 July, will not be a formal draft text but will be geared towards helping move negotiations forward. The move came after delegates struggled to make headway during a fortnight of negotiations on a 90-page draft negotiating text. The result of talks held in Geneva, Switzerland in February, the draft text contains a myriad of proposals from countries on what to include in, and arrangements for, the new agreement. According to a document released by the co-chairs of the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP), Ahmed Djoghlaf of Algeria and Daniel Reifsnyder of the US, the “tool” will consolidate the “Geneva Negotiating Text” and present countries with a clearer view of options on the table in various sections. It will also make suggestions on which paragraphs of the Geneva negotiating text might be included in the new agreement and which might be placed in a...