COP20—Lima Climate Conference — Global Issues

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September 14, 2025

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by Anup Shah
This web page Created Saturday, January 24, 2015

This web page: https://www.globalissues.org/article/805/cop20-lima-climate-conference.
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On this web page:

Introduction
Meeting end result
Mainstream media reporting
In context: widespread however differentiated tasks
More data
News tales from IPS

Introduction

December 1 – 14, 2014, Lima, Peru was the venue for the twentieth annual United Nations Climate Change Conference, also called the twentieth Conference of the Parties — or COP 20.

The function of this convention was to create a common settlement on local weather change motion and start the method of financing mitigation.

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Meeting end result

The assembly ended with all nations agreeing to chop again greenhouse gasoline emissions. Known because the Lima Accord, this treaty just isn’t legally binding and international locations wouldn’t have to specify how a lot they are going to reduce, as a substitute agreeing to report their plans again by March 2015.

While for a lot of it seemed like a profitable end result, others have been disillusioned, comparable to poor international locations struggling to rebuild from present impacts of local weather change who have been alarmed on the disappearance of loss and injury commitments from the ultimate textual content which has been a part of the dialogue for years.

The international local weather motion, 350.org, summarized the disappointments and hopeful features of the assembly end result, noting

The new settlement doesn’t replicate the urgency of the local weather disaster
Some good agreements – however no measures to make sure implementation
Least developed and weak nations overlooked within the chilly
Divestment (from fossil gas reliance) is extra essential than ever
Global momentum for actual options is stronger than ever and can carry on going.

In making an attempt to place a constructive spin on the general disappointment they felt, they concluded, In the tip, a world local weather treaty is only one software to fight local weather change. Real change goes to proceed to come back from the grassroots. The UN Climate Talks proceed to be a spot the place the world’s international locations comes collectively to debate this disaster and individuals are placing in huge efforts to ensure Paris [the next global meeting] received’t be like Copenhagen which was filled with disappointments regardless of huge guarantees.

Samantha Smith, Leader of WWF’s Global Climate and Energy Initiative, was fairly scathing of the assembly end result saying that political expediency received over scientific urgency. She additionally famous that Developed nation governments couldn’t even handle to elucidate how they are going to ship the long-promised US$100 billion per 12 months in local weather finance by 2020. In a transfer that seemingly dismissed the plight of essentially the most weak international locations, they utterly eliminated any significant language about ‘loss and injury’.

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Mainstream media reporting

As with virtually each earlier assembly (with occasional exceptions), mainstream media reporting was very poor given the significance of this international problem. Where the assembly was reported it was typically in direction of the tip, and simply sound chew kind summaries saying all international locations agreed to emission cuts and that this was a serious enchancment.

While the treaty continued to say it honors the long-standing widespread however differentiated tasks the mainstream media reporting (as in most years) has usually failed to offer rationalization and context of this precept that has been an essential a part of these talks for over 2 a long time; that poor and growing international locations shouldn’t bear the identical tasks because the developed ones (as a result of they don’t seem to be the reason for the anthropogenic carbon emissions over the earlier a long time which have led to this, which is detailed far more on this web site’s web page on local weather justice).

A touch in direction of this precept might have been offered as a viewpoint of China or India, given the impression they’re being obstacles, relatively then explaining this precept in additional context.

That was simply one of many points skirted over or omitted from widespread reporting. Others included points on financing, expertise assist for poorer nations, and so forth. Behind the scenes, for many years, wealthy international locations have stalled on these items or actively prevented making an attempt to share expertise and so forth, which is barely reported.

Every 12 months, this criticism is fabricated from mainstream reporting, so with out following these negotiations every year, it may be simple to come back away with the impression that this assembly had a constructive end result.

But as this dialogue hosted by Democracy Now! exhibits, there have been numerous essential problems with rivalry:

Emissions-Cutting Deal Reached at COP 20 Lima, But Will It Help Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change?, Democracy Now!, December 15, 2014.

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In context: widespread however differentiated tasks

Many years in the past all nations agreed that local weather change was largely the results of actions from at this time’s industrialized nations, as carbon dioxide — the principle greenhouse gasoline — stays within the environment for many years. Yet, the poorest would find yourself struggling essentially the most for an issue they largely didn’t trigger. The approaches to mitigation (emissions discount) would subsequently be totally different for these teams of nations — the widespread however differentiated tasks precept.

It is on this context that the dialogue for loss and injury has come about. And it’s one thing that wealthy international locations are eager to do away with .

The years of resistance on this problem (and plenty of others) means every time it’s mentioned once more the reactions appear to get much more hostile. Combined with the dearth of detailed context within the mainstream media protection of this facet, it then turns into simpler every time to see culprits as China and India given their huge greenhouse emissions in recent times, in comparison with the far larger quantity by the industrialized nations over the longer interval. See this web site’s part on local weather justice for extra detailed background.

And as this web site has mentioned for years on the local weather justice web page, the wealthy nations are delaying any significant motion till it’s ultimately — and disproportionately — paid for the by the growing nations. New Delhi primarily based Nitin Sethi, affiliate editor at Business Standard, interviewed within the earlier talked about video says the identical factor, however extra frankly:

There isn’t any motion that’s going to occur between now and 2020. All of that was to be performed by the developed international locations. They [rich nations] principally have simply mentioned at Lima that we’re not going to do any greater than what we’re doing thus far, and the burden can shift onto the post-2020 period, the place different growing international locations need to share it. So, to me, it signifies actually negotiation in unhealthy religion.

Nitin Sethi, Emissions-Cutting Deal Reached at COP 20 Lima, But Will It Help Prevent Catastrophic Climate Change?, Democracy Now!, December 15, 2014

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