Over the past fortnight the eyes of the global community have been focused on the Lima climate conference, which, much like its predecessor, ended without any real progress towards a global agreement.
The Lima conference had a largely simple goal – to agree to the scope and schedule for the Paris agreement in December 2015, yet historical divisions once more came to the surface with developed and developing economies split on many of the details of a future agreement, notably the legal form of any 2015 text.
As in past conferences, developing markets fear that any future agreement will require them to set more ambitious emissions targets , while developed economies, which have produced most of the world’s emissions, argue that the time is nigh for global action, particularly from larger economies China and India.
The final outcome in Lima, which can be read in full here, waters down an earlier draft version by deleting any review of country pledges, along with a technical review of financial support for developing countries.
