The Lima climate talks went into overtime, but produced only a weak draft of a global agreement, setting the mark higher for the discussions scheduled for Paris in 2015. The UN Climate Change Conference once again stumbled over the gap between rich and poor nations and their respective responsibilities and rights. Head UN representative Christiana Figuerres said the discussions were "very, very chanllenging" meaning that no final agreement was even close to be achieved. But some progress was made in framing issues and launching further work in key areas such as how to finance adaptation to a warmer planet, now a certainty. Countries must now express their respective carbon targets in a manner that will allow the UN to quantify their proposed contributions so that apples and oranges can compared in the UN forthcoming synthesis report. The agreed upon global goal is to keep planet warming below 2 centigrade to avoid the worst predicted consequences of irreversable warming due to greenhouse gas emissions.
What is absent from the progress made is binding cuts in emissions that would be reported and internationally regulated. Only a method of self-certification is allowed. This relatively weak provision disappoints many climate activists who were momentarily encouraged by the US-China agreement on global warming that made specific pledges. The US pledged carbon emission cuts of 26 to 28% below 2005 levels by 2025. China pledged to make best efforts to reach peak carbon dixoide emmissions before 2030 and increase the share of alternative energy consumption to 20% by the same year. The Lima session still leaves the citizens of poor countries facing catastrophic climate change because of the lack of political will in industrialized nations to build a low carbon future, according to a spokesman for Friends of the Earth.