LIMA, Peru — A last-minute deal that salvaged U.N. climate talks from collapse early Sunday sends a signal that the rich-poor divide that long held up progress can be overcome with a year to go before a landmark pact is supposed to be adopted in Paris.
Still, it remains to be seen whether governments can come up with a new formula for how countries in different stages of development should contribute in a way that keeps global warming from reaching dangerous levels.
“This issue will be contentious, and it will need to be worked through all the way to Paris,” said U.S. climate envoy Todd Stern after the marathon talks in Lima finished, more than 30 hours behind schedule.
The U.N. talks were far away from reaching any agreement on reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to a level that scientists say would keep global warming in check. But the Paris agreement would be the first to call on all countries to control their emissions.
The U.S. and other developed nations say that means tearing down the firewall in negotiations that compels only rich countries to rein in emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Though it was agreed in 2011 that goals set in Paris would be “applicable to all,” many developing countries worry they will be required to take on emissions controls that stymie their economic growth. In Lima, they rejected a draft text that made no mention of different responsibilities and capabilities to fight global warming.
“We are in a differentiated world. That is the reality,” Malaysian negotiator Gurdial Singh Nijar told delegates. “Many of you colonized us, so we started from a completely different point.”
Despite the tough rhetoric, the conference ended Sunday with a compromise based on a groundbreaking U.S.-China deal on emissions targets last month.
The Lima decision noted the principle in the 1992 U.N. climate change convention that countries have “common but differentiated responsibilities” to tackle climate change. But like the U.S.-China deal, it added that this should be seen “in light of different national circumstances,” suggesting countries’ responsibilities change over time as they develop.
“It sounds like a tiny thing, but it’s very important,” said Nathaniel Keohane, vice president of the Environmental Defense Fund. “I think we’re starting to see the plates move.”
How to interpret what it means in practice is going to be critical over the next year as countries firm up their emissions targets for the Paris agreement.
Asked about the implications of the Lima deal, Chinese negotiator Su Wei repeated China’s mantra that the purpose of the Paris agreement is to “reinforce and enhance” the 1992 convention, not rewrite it.
“This paragraph may represent a compromise that both sides can interpret as they choose to,” said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.
