Lima deal saves climate talks, India satisfied

LIMA: A compromise draft on national pledges to cut global carbon emissions saved the UN climate talks from a collapse and kept hopes alive for a global deal in Paris next year to combat climate change. After a marathon 13-day conference of parties (COP), negotiators on Sunday adopted the draft that addressed India’s concerns and set the roadmap for a new binding deal.

Though the outcome is not on expected lines, it somehow managed to keep red lines for all countries- developed and developing. The agreement — Lima Call for Climate Action — paves the way for all nations to submit their 'nationally determined' pledge for emission cuts and adaptation measures by October next year — not by June, 2015 that was expected after last year's Warsaw talks.

Though it doesn't give an ambitious roadmap for climate finance, it addresses the concerns of developing countries by keeping 'adaptation' clause intact and not diluting the basic principles — CBDRs — of the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol. The contentious issues will, however, come up again during the Paris talks ahead of the final agreement.

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Commenting on the draft, environment minister Prakash Javadekar said, “All of India's concerns have been addressed.” “We have achieved targets and we got what we wanted,” he said after the delegates approved a broad blueprint for talks leading up to a deal in 2015 that is to come into effect after 2020.


The minister of state for environment, forest and climate change, Prakash Javadekar speaks at a high-level segment of UNFCCC conference of parties in Lima. (PTI photo)

Nations concluded by elaborating the elements of the new agreement, scheduled to be stamped in Paris in late 2015, while also agreeing to the ground rules on how all countries can submit contributions to the new agreement during the first quarter of next year.

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.

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During the two-week 20th COP, countries also made significant progress in elevating adaptation onto the same level as action to cut and curb emissions.
Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, minister of environment of Peru and COP president, said: “Lima has given new urgency towards fast-tracking adaptation and building resilience across the developing world — not least by strengthening the link to finance and development of national adaptation plans. Meanwhile here in Lima, governments have left with a far clearer vision of what the draft Paris agreement will look like as we head into 2015 and the next round of negotiations in Geneva.”


Activists wearing masks depicting (left to tight) Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, China's President Xi Jinping, Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russia's President Vladimir Putin are seen before they demonstrate to demand cuts in global emissions during the UN Climate Change Conference COP 20 in Lima December 12, 2014. (Reuters photo)

The Lima climate conference achieved a range of other important outcomes, decisions and “firsts” in the history of international climate process. Pledges were made by both developed and developing countries prior to and during the COP that took the capitalization of the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) past an initial $10 billion target.

Levels of transparency and confidence-building reached new heights as several industrialized countries submitted themselves to questioning about their emission targets under a new process called a "multilateral assessment".

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The Lima Ministerial Declaration on Education and Awareness-raising calls on governments to put climate change into school curricula and climate awareness into national development plans.

The discussions though had at times got heated as developed and developing countries bickered over who should bear responsibility for reducing carbon emissions and whether rich nations should reduce emissions faster and over the quantum of aid they should give to poor countries to check global warming.