Closing time: Climate diplomats decide wording and the world

By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, ANNIRUDDHA GHOSAL and SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press

GLASGOW, Scotland (AP) — In the frantic last hours of U.N. climate talks in Scotland, a senior diplomat from Luxembourg sprinted down a hallway inside the summit venue. He whooshed by clutching a sheaf of papers, only to vanish inside an office. The final stretch of negotiations over what nearly 200 governments will do next to keep the planet from heating to disastrous levels was like that on Friday. Delegations engaged in frenetic, often mysterious activity as they haggled to get as much of their position as possible into the final agreement from the talks in Glasgow. Hours of negotiations over wording could seem like nit-picking but determined how firmly nations commit to steps to stave off climate change.