Key outcomes from Lima? Updates and reaction from the UN climate summit in Peru
18.12.2014
A new 2015 agreement on climate change, that will harness action by all nations, took a step forward in Lima following two weeks of negotiations by over 190 countries. Nations concluded by elaborating the elements of the new agreement, scheduled to be agreed in Paris in late 2015, while also agreeing the ground rules on how all countries can submit contributions to the new agreement during the first months of next year.
All countries will be asked to submit plans for curbing greenhouse gas emissions. These Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) will form the foundation for climate action post 2020 when the new agreement is set to come into effect. But there will be few obligations to provide details and no review to compare each nation’s pledges.
The synthesis of the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), leaves no doubt: climate change is set to inflict “severe, widespread, and irreversible impacts” on people and the natural world unless carbon emissions are cut sharply and rapidly. Will Paris answer to this challenge?
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