Lima - A major UN climate conference formally opened on Monday in the Peruvian capital, with delegates intent on laying the basis for a new worldwide agreement on global warming.
For 12 days, representatives of 195 countries are to debate at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP-20) conference, working towards a climate agreement for signing in Paris in late 2015. The global agreement would then go into force in 2020.
Without such a comprehensive deal, it will be nearly impossible to keep global warming in check. The main goal of the conference is to reach a compromise on reducing emissions of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, in order to limit the increase in global temperature to 2 degrees Celsius.
“We want you to enjoy the hospitality of our country's people, but at the same time we hope you find the trust, the comfort and the will to attain the concrete compromises that the world needs,” Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal said as he opened the conference.
He noted that the window was closing in the fight against climate change. “We may not allow this chance to slip by,” he said.
Christina Figueres, who heads the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), warned that the year 2014 will probably qualify as the hottest in history.
Ahead of the gathering, Peruvian President Ollanta Humala asked the international community to build “the largest alliance in history for the sake of the climate and of development.”
Lima is an important milestone on the way to Paris, said Elina
Bardram head of the EU delegation in Lima.
National governments have to submit their national climate protection goals by the end of March.
Some worry that Lima will see another round of blame-saying. The standoff between China and the US - the world's number one and two CO2 producers - has until just recently largely blocked progress.
But China last month made its first ever commitments to limiting emissions in a breakthrough deal with the United States, sending a signal to developing countries to get on board. That has spawned optimism ahead of the Lima meetings.
The United States has pledged to reduce its greenhouse emissions by 26 to 28 per cent by 2025 compared to 2005.
China has pledged that its emissions will peak in 2030 - its first public commitment to cooperating with global efforts. Beijing plans to increase renewable energy use to 20 per cent of all sources by then.
The development organisation Oxfam challenged industrialised countries to take the lead in the global efforts to keep Earth cool - and to do so with money, too.
Financial support for poor countries most affected by climate change is a key factor in the talks, said Oxfam's climate expert Jan Kowalzig. Affluent countries must make concrete commitments to boost the UN help fund to 100 billion dollars a year by 2020.
This year's campaign has raised 10 billion dollars for the Green Fund.
That amount fell far short of the need, said representatives of the G77 group of developing countries. They pushed for more transfers of technology to help them adapt to global warming.
Greenpeace environmental activists used the historic Inca site of Machu Pichu, 2 000 metres high, as their platform to project their slogan -”Act for the Climate! Go Solar” - onto a nearby mountain.
Climate scientists say the world must limit temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels. But the current course will boost temperatures far beyond that, triggering what scientists warn will be drastic global flooding, massive drought, melting polar ice and huge threats to human populations.
Some organisations are optimistic about the talks. They say the huge move in September to back carbon pricing and trading by 74 countries and more than 1 000 businesses and investors added surprising momentum to the Lima gathering.
“I think we are coming into the event with a head of steam that many of us weren't really expecting,” said Dirk Forrister, president of the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), in a briefing to reporters last week.
But Michael Mueller, chairman of the NaturFreunde Deutschlands (German Friends of Nature) was more sceptical about the weary ritual of recurring climate conferences.
“First, the drama of the threat is cited, then there are warnings against expecting too much, and then come the blockades and hurdles, and finally the minimal results are interpreted with a promise that it will be better the next time,” he said. - Sapa-dpa