References to encourage international shipping and aviation bodies to work towards curbing greenhouse gas emissions have been dropped from the latest draft text for a global climate deal published by the United Nations on Wednesday, Reuters news agency reports.

A previous UN draft - published on 5 December - and heavily couched with brackets said: "Parties pursue the limitation or reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from international aviation and marine bunker fuels ... a view to agreeing concrete measures addressing these emissions." 

Today's text made no reference to the sectors. Aviation and shipping make up around 5% of global emissions.

In huddles, at tables and perched almost everywhere around this conference, negotiators and observers from nearly 200 countries are getting their teeth into the new text.

It remains to be seen how they react to the optimism of the chair, Laurent Fabius - and the overnight work of his drafting team.

If you're keen to read the document yourself, the UNFCCC has tweeted the link:

BBC science editor David Shukman tweets:

Matt McGrath
Environment correspondent, BBC News, Paris

A critical new "clean" draft has been published at these UN talks in Paris, as the deadline looms for a global climate deal.

This new version, 29 pages long, marks the first time the French presidency of the meeting has pulled together an outline of a deal.

The new draft has significantly reduced the options on many of the key questions after days of negotiations.

According to conference president Laurent Fabius, the key difficulties have been identified.

"The focus is now on open questions that still need to be settled at a political level," he told negotiators.

Observers were unsure as to how the parties would react to the new text.

"This is the first time the French fingerprints will be on the process, and that's a risky business," said Dr Diarmuid Torney from Dublin City University, who is an observer at these talks.

"We saw [this] earlier this year at a previous climate meeting in Bonn when the co-chairs tried to come up with a shorter text and the response from parties was to re-insert all their favourite parts back into the text. There could be fireworks."

Read Matt's full news story here: 'Fireworks' expected as new climate text published

The 29 page agreement, down from 43 according to COP21 president Laurent Fabius, is now being handed out to delegates.

As he concluded his address, the packed plenary hall broke into applause - something that is usually rare at events such as this, but has become a surprisingly common response for Mr Fabius.

He warned the ministers that they should expect to work through the night on Wednesday and asked them to be ready to compromise.

Image source, UNFCCC

Conference president Laurent Fabius is now speaking to the assembled delegates about the latest draft, which he says will be released to them imminently.

He says the number of points left in square brackets, to be clarified by ministers, has been reduced by 75%.

Jonathan Webb
Science reporter, BBC News

As a reminder, the text at the heart of this two-week summit is currently in the hands of the French secretariat running the show.

Many square-bracketed options and inclusions were whittled down by negotiators during the first week. Since Monday, environment ministers have been working on sections of it, in small groups.

Last night those groups submitted their work to Laurent Fabius, the conference president, and his team is due to release a "clean" draft at 14:00 GMT today - two hours later than planned.

It is now 14:07.

This is the first delay in any of the deadlines set by the French team, whose rigorous organisation has impressed delegates and commentators.

Once the text is released, delegates from all the countries here will be able to react to it. Representatives are gathering now in one of the conference centre's cavernous plenary halls.

Those reactions will be critical to how this conference moves to its conclusion - which the French have timetabled, ambitiously, for 6pm local time on Friday.

Mr Kerry said that the US will join a 'high ambition coalition' at the UN's climate talks. He may be referring to the grouping launched yesterday between the EU and 79 other nations from Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific - but we are waiting for further details.

Mr Kerry also announced that the US will increase the money it provides for climate adaptation grants, from $430 million to $860 million by 2020.

Associated Press reports it is "not clear" whether this is money that has already been promised in other aid packages.

As the US Secretary of State's press conference continues, he says those who reject the evidence for climate change are "so out of touch with science they believe the water from rising sea levels will just flow off the sides of a flat earth".

He says the imperative to act is unprecedented.

Speaking to journalists here at the climate talks, the US Secretary of State John Kerry says there is a lot of momentum towards a deal.

Image source, UNFCCC

For anyone who witnessed the chaos and collapse of the Copenhagen climate summit six years ago, the Paris talks are running not only with surprising ease but also with unusually accurate timing.

Back in Denmark in 2009, there were so many delays that they became routine and we hardly bothered reporting them. 

Now, as the French hosts signal a two-hour delay on the release of the draft agreement, there’s endless speculation about whether anything has gone wrong. 

The fact is that these negotiations cover such fundamentally important issues – cash, growth, fairness to name but a few – that any absence of hold-ups would be unprecedented. 

But let’s get to 3pm local time and see if that new draft actually appears. In this end-game, anything is possible.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is holding a press conference here in the Le Bourget conference centre.

It was scheduled for 13:00 GMT but is running late, amid additional security restrictions and bag checks.

Mr Kerry arrived at the talks on Monday with a brief, according to the State Department, to "underscore the importance of ambitious, global action to address climate change and its devastating impacts around the world".

Image source, US Department of State

He has also been catching up with some famous friends...

The chief negotiator from Bhutan has just spoken to BBC World News. He said he is hopeful that a solid deal will emerge from the Paris talks - and also spoke about his country's "happiness index" and precisely what it measures.

Read more about Bhutan's happiness index in Matt McGrath's online feature from September: Electric vehicles boost climate 'nirvana' in the Himalayas

As the negotiations continue in Paris, the BBC's science editor David Shukman takes a look at the drought conditions in Namibia.

Agricultural and environmental experts there are hoping that lessons from events like this can help farmers to fight back against climate change.

Roger Harrabin
BBC environment analyst

A senior US official has questioned the UK government’s decision to scrap its £1bn competition for carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. 

CCS has long been a central pillar of the UK’s climate policy. Ministers said it was needed to allow the UK to hit CO2 targets whilst continuing to burn coal and gas.

That’s why there was widespread surprise when the £1bn was pulled away in the Autumn Statement. Energy experts objected, but the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) blamed harsh economic times. 

In an interview with BBC News, Gina McCarthy, administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, said she couldn’t criticise another country’s policies. But…

This morning, delegates arriving at COP21 were greeted by a two-story high, mechanical polar bear.

The beast, named Aurora, was brought by activists from Greenpeace. She is a veteran of the organisation's protests outside the headquarters of Shell in London - and today proved a popular backdrop for selfies:

According to the AP news agency, delegates and observers waiting to see the new 'clean' draft will have to bide their time.

A French official, they report, has said that the draft will not be released until at least 15:00 Paris time (14:00 GMT):

"The official says negotiators are working to 'harmonize' one or two points in the text. The official, not authorized to be publicly named speaking about the high-stakes negotiations, would not elaborate on which points. It's the first official delay in the negotiating process so far."

As expected, sticking points in negotiations so far have included  how much of the agreement should be legally binding, and what rich countries should do to help poor countries adapt and reduce climate change.

BBC science editor David Shukman tweets:

The 'Comite de Paris' meetings referred to in the image above are called by meeting president Laurent Fabius.

They are general meetings of all the parties, intended to update everyone on progress - but do no involve decisions about the text itself.