Countries reach climate change deal at Lima Conference, paving the way for Paris 2015

Mon 15 December 2014 View all news

United Nations member countries reached a draft agreement on international climate change policy in Lima, following drawn out talks. The five-page text received a mixed reaction with the general consensus among environmental leaders being that the talks are an 'important step' towards an agreement in Paris. Meanwhile, separate reports say that 2014 is set to be the warmest year since records began.

However, The Guardian reported that environment groups criticised world governments for 'remaining far from where they need to be' and leaving the world vulnerable to a 4-6C average global warming. COP20 negotiators have also acknowledged that they had put off the most difficult decisions until later. 

Key points of the Lima agreement

  • Negotiators agreed that all countries must reach an ambitious agreement in 2015 which reflects different national circumstances. 
  • Developed country leaders were urged to provide financial support to developing countries, especially those most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, to help them adapt. 
  • Donations to the Green Climate Fund - to help in the transition to a low-carbon economy - exceeded the UN $10bn goal for 2014. 
  • Countries decided in detail how to present their national contributions by March 2015. 

Lord Nicholas Stern, chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change said: "This is an important step towards a new agreement at the climate change summit in Paris in December 2015, but it still leaves a number of important issues to be worked out between countries over the next 12 months. 

"It is vital that countries put forward before the Paris summit intended nationally determined contributions that are both ambitious and credible. However, it is already clear that the scale of action to control and reduce annual emissions of greenhouse gases will collectively not be consistent with a pathway that will mean a reasonable chance of avoiding dangerous global warming of more than 2C above pre-industrial level." 

Ed Davey, UK Energy and Climate Change Secretary said: "This is an agreement that unites all nations, unlocking the door to the world's first global climate deal in Paris next year. 

"The next 12 months will be critical and the UK's leadership will be needed more than ever in the difficult negotiations ahead - but we have to succeed because the threat to our children's future is so serious." 

Sam Smith, chief of climate policy for the environmental group WWF, said: "The text went from weak to weaker to weakest and it's very weak indeed." 

There were difficulties on the issue of how much more developed nations should contribute to achieving the desired outcomes. The agreement ultimately attempted to overcome this by calling on the richest nations at the 2015 summit to provide financial support to "vulnerable" countries whilst also admitting that any deal needs to reflect "differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities" of each nation. 

Meanwhile, the BBC has reported that 2014 is in the running to be the hottest globally and for the UK since records began. In the first 10 months of 2014, global average air temperature was about 0.57 Celsius above the long-term average while the first eleven months in the UK have produced an average temperature 1.6C above the long-term.

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