Row over legal nature of Paris climate deal

Any global climate change deal reached in Paris next month will be legally binding and have a concrete impact, France’s foreign minister said on Thursday, reacting to US comments that questioned the status of the accord.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, was quoted as telling Wednesday’s Financial Times that December’s agreement was “definitively not going to be a treaty”.

But his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, said on Thursday that, unlike previous negotiations, the Paris talks were not just “hot air” and Kerry was perhaps “confused”.

“Jurists will discuss the legal nature of an accord on whether it should be termed as a treaty or an international agreement,” Fabius told reporters.