A new 2015 agreement on climate change, that will harness action by all nations, took a further important step forward in Lima following two weeks of negotiations by over 190 countries.

However, the two-week talks overran by two days as a result of differences over the draft text.

Nations concluded by elaborating the elements of the new agreement, scheduled to be agreed in Paris in late 2015, while also agreeing the ground rules on how all countries can submit contributions to the new agreement during the first quarter of next year.

The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) will form the foundation for climate action post 2020 when the new agreement is set to come into effect.

The United Nations said that countries had also made significant progress in elevating adaptation onto the same level as action to cut and curb emission during the two week 20th Conference of the Parties,

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the Minister of the Environment of Peru and the COP President, said:

“Lima has given new urgency towards fast tracking adaptation and building resilience across the developing world—not least by strengthening the link to finance and the development of national adaptation plans.”

He added that governments had left with a far clearer vision of what the draft Paris agreement will look like and that the Conference had achieved a range of other important outcomes and decisions and "firsts" in the history of the international climate process.

Pledges were made by both developed and developing countries prior to and during the COP that took the capitalization of the new Green Climate Fund (GCF) past an initial $10 billion target.

Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said:

“Governments arrived in Lima on a wave of positive news and optimism resulting from the climate action announcements of the European Union, China and the United States to the scaling up of pledges for the Green Climate Fund.”

“They leave Lima on a fresh wave of positivity towards Paris with a range of key decisions agreed and action-agendas launched, including on how to better scale up and finance adaptation, alongside actions on forests and education.”

Progress was made in Lima on elevating adaptation onto the same level as the curbing and cutting of curbing greenhouse gas emissions. This will be done through:

Recognition that National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) offer an important way of delivering resilience.

NAPs will now be made more visible via the UNFCCC website which should improve the opportunity for receiving backing.

The green light was also given for discussions with the Green Climate Fund (GCF) on how countries can be supported with their NAPs which should increase the number of these plans coming forward for support.

Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the COP President, also launched a NAP Global Network involving Peru, the US, Germany, the Philippines, Togo, the UK, Jamaica, and Japan.

Financing the response to climate change

On financing the response to climate change,  Governments made progress on coordinating the delivery of climate finance and of the various existing funds.

Further pledges were made to the Green Climate Fund in Lima by the governments of Norway, Australia, Belgium, Peru, Colombia and Austria--the pledges brought the total sum pledged to the Green Climate Fund to close to USD 10.2 billion.

China also announced $10 million for South-South cooperation and mentioned they would double it next year.

However, the talks saw only slow progress on countries accepting the Kyoto Protocol Doha Amendment.  Nauru and Tuvalu – both at risk from the impacts of climate change - submitted their instrument of acceptance to the Doha amendment, bringing the number of Parties to 21. However, a total of 144 are required to bring it into force.

The United Nations is now encouraging governments to speed up their acceptance of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the international emissions reduction treaty, in order to provide further momentum for global climate action for the years leading up to 2020.

Responses to the outcome of the talks have been mixed, with the modest agreement about the building blocks of a deal due to be agreed in Paris in 2015 receiving a lukewarm reaction from environmental NGOs.

FoE: talks have ended with little progress

Friends of the Earth said the international community has failed to make significant progress towards securing an effective climate change agreement in Paris next year as the latest round of talks in Lima, Peru closed.

 Friends of the Earth’s International Climate Campaigner Asad Rehman said:

 “The only thing these talks have achieved is to reduce the chances of a fair and effective agreement to tackle climate change in Paris next year.”

 “Once again poorer nations have been bullied by the industrialised world into accepting an outcome which leaves many of their citizens facing the grim prospect of catastrophic climate change. We have the ingenuity and resources to build the low carbon future we so urgently need – but we still lack the political will.”

 “With the world speeding towards catastrophic climate change, wealthy industrialised nations who have contributed most to our polluted atmosphere must take the lead in tackling this threat. The next 12 months are crucial – failure to act will have a devastating impact on us all.”

 Friends of the Earth says a number of key areas must be resolved if a fair and meaningful agreement is to be reached in Paris next year, including:

 Wealthy industrialised nations must pledge bigger cuts in their emissions by 2020;

Wealthy industrialised nations must provide adequate finance and technology to enable developing countries to tackle climate change and adapt to its impacts and support those already being impacted;

Wealthy industrialised nations must provide the finance and technology for a global renewable energy transformation

All countries to commit to doing their fair share of effort to keep temps below 1.5c