Lima: Negotiators on Sunday adopted a compromise draft for national pledges to cut global carbon emissions at the marathon UN climate talks here that addressed all of India’s concerns and paved the way for a new ambitious and binding deal to be signed in Paris next year to combat climate change.
“The document is approved,” announced the president of the UN climate talks meeting, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, after hectic negotiations by officials from 194 countries for about two weeks in the Peruvian capital here. “I think this is good, and I think this moves us forward,” Mr Pulgar-Vidal said. Mnister of state for environment Prakash Javadekar said: “All of India’s concerns have been addressed. We have achieved the targets and we got what we wanted.”
The minister, who spoke after the delegates approved a broad blueprint for talks leading up to a deal in 2015, to take effect in 2020, also remained positive on the meetings in the next year and in Paris, saying: “We can build on this [Lima text] and build a consensus.” The adoption of the draft at the meeting which went into two extra days was seen as a significant first step towards reaching a global climate change deal in Paris, although the delegates feel much of the hard work remained ahead.
The deal — dubbed the Lima Call for Climate Action — paves the way for what is envisioned as the historic agreement in environmental history. The agreement was adopted hours after a previous draft was rejected by developing countries, which accused the rich nations of shirking their responsibilities to fight global warming and pay for its impacts. The final draft is said to have alleviated those concerns by saying countries have “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
