UN climate talks a damp squib

There was a degree of optimism heading into the Lima negotiations, with the world’s largest emitters – China, US, and Europe – communicating their emission reduction targets, and countries pledging a combined total of US$10 billion to the Green Climate Fund. Disappointingly, governments missed the opportunity to build on this momentum to lay a robust foundation for a global post-2020 agreement on climate change to be finalised in Paris next year, and to ramp up pre-2020 action on climate change.

“The agreement in Lima delivers the bare minimum”, said Harold Hester, BirdLife Botswana’s Chairman. “It keeps the Paris 2015 agreement within reach, but it hardly inspires confidence”.