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Weakened climate deal agreed

CHANGING TIMES: Betty Guerrero throws dirty water which was used for laundry, outside her home on the outskirts of Lima. Water will become scarcer in sprawling settlements such as Nuevo Pachacutec on the Pacific coast as the population of Peru's capital surges and global warming thaws Andean glaciers, reducing flows in coming decades as the ice disappears.
Reuters

CHANGING TIMES: Betty Guerrero throws dirty water which was used for laundry, outside her home on the outskirts of Lima. Water will become scarcer in sprawling settlements such as Nuevo Pachacutec on the Pacific coast as the population of Peru's capital surges and global warming thaws Andean glaciers, reducing flows in coming decades as the ice disappears.

A compromise deal salvaged by climate negotiators in Lima sets the stage for a global pact in Paris next year, but a consensus could not be reached on nations submitting to a rigorous review of their plans for greenhouse gas emissions limits.

In the agreement, reached more than 30 hours after talks were supposed to end, more than 190 countries agreed on what information should go into the pledges that countries submit for the expected Paris pact.

Although the Lima document does not oblige nations to provide that information - or even to set goals, they are feeling increasing domestic and international pressure to act on human-generated climate change blamed for more violent, damaging weather that has put 2014 on track to be the warmest year on record.

"I think there will be a lot of peer pressure for countries to put forward that kind of information," said Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute. "It is a new world."

Even China - the world's No.1 greenhouse gas polluter and among resisters of transparency on measuring its emissions - is feeling the heat as its citizens endure health-endangering smog from coal-burning power plants.

Delegates argued all day Saturday (local time) over the wording for the watered-down deal, with developing nations worried that the text blurred the distinction between what rich and poor countries can be expected to do.

Many developing countries, the most vulnerable to climate change's impacts, accuse rich nations of shirking their responsibilities to curb climate change and pay for the damage it inflicts.

The final draft of the deal alleviated those concerns with language saying countries have "common but differentiated responsibilities" to deal with global warming.

"As a text it's not perfect, but it includes the positions of the parties," said Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, the conference chairman. He spent most of Saturday meeting separately with delegations.

In presenting a new, fourth draft just before midnight (local time), Peru's environment minister gave a sharply reduced body of delegates an hour to review it. Many delegates had already quit the makeshift conference centre on the grounds of Peru's army headquarters.

The approved agreement also restored language demanded by small island states at risk of being flooded by rising seas, mentioning a "loss and damage" mechanism agreed upon in last year's talks in Poland that recognises that nations hardest hit by climate change will require financial and technical help.

"We need a permanent arrangement to help the poorest of the world," Ian Fry, negotiator for the Pacific Island nation of Tuvalu, said at a midday session.

However, the approved draft weakened language on the content of pledges on emissions limits, saying they "may," instead of "shall," include quantifiable information showing how countries intend to meet their emissions targets.

Also, China and other major developing countries opposed plans for a review process that would allow the pledges to be compared against one another before Paris.

In Lima, the momentum from last month's joint US-China deal on emissions targets faded quickly as rifts reopened over who should do what to fight global warming.

The talks' goal is to shape a global agreement in Paris that puts the world on a path to reduce the heat-trapping gases that scientists say are warming the planet.

The new draft mentioned only that all pledges would be reviewed a month ahead of Paris to assess their combined effect on climate change.

"I think it's definitely watered down from what we expected," said Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Sam Smith, chief of climate policy for the environmental group WWF, said: "The text went from weak to weaker to weakest and it's very weak indeed."

Chief US negotiator Todd Stern acknowledged that negotiations had been contentious but said the outcome was "quite good in the end."

He had warned that failing to leave Lima with an accord would be "seen as a serious breakdown" that could put the Paris agreement and the entire UN process at risk.

Though negotiating tactics always play a role, virtually all disputes in the UN talks reflect a wider issue of how to divide the burden of fixing the planetary warming that scientists say results from human activity, primarily the burning of oil, coal and natural gas.

Historically, Western nations are the biggest emitters. Currently, most CO2 emissions are coming from developing countries led by China and India as they grow their economies and lift millions out of poverty.

During a brief stop in Lima on Thursday (local time), US Secretary of State John Kerry said fixing the problem is "everyone's responsibility, because it's the net amount of carbon that matters, not each country's share."

According to the UN's scientific panel on climate change, the world can pump out no more than about 1 trillion tons of carbon to have a likely chance of avoiding dangerous levels of warming - defined in the UN talks as exceeding 2 degrees Celsius above 19th-century averages.

It already has spent more than half of that carbon budget as emissions continue to rise, driven by growth in China and other emerging economies.

Scientific reports say climate impacts are already happening and include rising sea levels, intensifying heat waves and shifts in weather patterns causing floods in some areas and droughts in others.

The UN weather agency said last week that 2014 could become the hottest year on record.

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