Lima talks conclude with bare bones agreement

The Deputy General Director of the Department of Meteorology, Hydrology and Climate Change (DMHCC) summed up the outcome of the 20th Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as well as anyone.

Pham Van Tan, who is also the deputy head of the Vietnam negotiation delegation on climate change, says the conference on the one hand has achieved a very good and useful agreement, which sets forth the basics for an agreement to be achieved in 2015 in Paris and come into effect as from 2020.

But he had a caveat saying that on the other hand it has left much work for Vietnam to do in preparation for the conference set for the Paris conference.

The agreement addresses measures to cut and curb CO emissions, in all countries, particularly developing countries before 2020. It also provides assistance for developing countries in terms of financing and assistance with technology transfer and capacity.

Many leading world experts are, however, criticizing the agreement reached at the conference saying it does not meet with the world’s expectation in response to clear and strong impact of climate change.

The 'Lima Call for Climate Action' contains both a 22-paragaph agreement on Intended Nationally-Determined Contributions (INDC), which are the emission-reduction proposals that individual countries will begin proposing in the first quarter of 2015, and a draft negotiating text for the 2015 agreement.

The 22 paragraphs on INDCs are less detailed than many had expected, and that will make the next three months especially critical as Vietnam and other countries upload their INDCs to the UNFCCC website.

The proposals are supposed to contain specific emission-reduction targets and contain specific plans for achieving them, and optimists believe their emergence in place of a top-down global agreement will spark a race to the top throughout 2015 and even beyond.

While the Lima summit fell short of expectations, the pressure is still on countries to put forward their best emissions reduction offers early next year, but the  good news is that the world's three largest emitters – China, Europe, and the US – have already committed to do so, and others are expected to join them.

(Source: VOV)