COP20: Key points in the Lima climate agreement

LIMA, Peru – UN member countries agreed Sunday, December 14, on a format for national pledges on curbing Earth-warming greenhouse gas emissions to be introduced next year.

The pledges:

• Should be submitted by the first quarter of 2015 by “those parties ready to do so”, and as soon as possible thereafter by the rest.
• Will be self-determined.
• Must improve on a nation’s current carbon-cutting undertakings.
• May include information on the base year used as a reference for emissions cuts, time frame for implementation, and the methodology for calculating the numbers.
• Will be published on the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
• Will be assessed by the UNFCCC secretariat, which will prepare a report by November 1, 2015, on their aggregate effect on the UN goal to curb global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

They need not:

• Include information on rich countries’ planned financial assistance for developing nations, as requested by many, though the text “urges” such support.
• Detail assistance for developing nations’ climate adaptation plans. Parties are merely invited to “consider including an adaptation component”.

Despite demands by nations at the highest risk from global warming, the text does not call for a process to ramp up pledges if their aggregate effect is found lacking.

Least developed countries and small island developing states are exempt from pledging, but may communicate information on low-emissions strategies if they wish.

Negotiators also undertook to complete before May 2015 a working draft for a new global climate pact that must be inked in Paris in December. – Rappler.com