Representatives from more than 190 countries convened in Lima, Peru to tackle the issue of global warming. On Sunday, after more than 36 hours of negotiations, the delegates have come up with the first ever deal that commit all countries worldwide poor and rich alike to cut their fossil fuel emissions.
Dubbed the Lima Accord, the deal marks the first time that all nations agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emission and represents an important step towards a new climate change deal set to be finalized in Paris in 2015.
The deal, however, is far from perfect. Alden Meyer, from the Union of Concerned Scientists described the deal as watered down from what was expected. The text, for instance, used weakened words such as "may" instead of "shall" giving countries more freedom when it comes to meeting or not meeting their emission targets as well as complying or not complying with what the pact calls for them to do.
The agreement called for all countries to submit their plans on how they intend to reduce their greenhouse emissions on March 31 next year. The Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), as these are called, will be published online.
"If a country doesn't submit a plan, there will be no punishment, no fine, no black U.N. helicopters showing up," said Jennifer Morgan, from research organization World Resources Institute. "It relies on a lot of peer pressure."
By Nov. 1, the UN climate change secretariat should have come up with a report of the effects of all the INDCS in slowing the warming of the planet.
The text also blurred the distinction between developing and wealthy nations in combating global warming, which distinctly sets the agreement from the Kyoto Protocol, which was marked by the lack of accountability among poor nations in combatting climate change but deep-pocketed nations are called for to do more.
They are to provide financial help to developing nations in order to facilitate the transition of these poorer countries in cutting their emission and adapting to climate change. Although the developing countries wanted the richer nations to come up with a clear timeline for scaling up their funding, the text notably only used the word "requested."
Poor nations that are vulnerable to extreme weather events also got the nod for the mention of "loss and damage" in the text that may get them receiving compensation for climatic events such as super typhoons.
