Lima Climate Change Conference

The 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 20) to the UN Framework on Climate Change will take place in Lima between 1st and 12th December 2014.

The lessons learned from the very visible failure of world leaders to reach a satisfactory agreement at the Copenhagen conference in 2010 have resulted in a great deal of preparation work in advance of the Paris COP next year. The stated aim for that conference is to reach a global agreement that will result in emissions reductions that would limit global temperature increases to below 2oC and which would come into force in 2020. Countries also have a deadline of spring next year for announcing their individual contributions to cutting emissions, in advance of the Paris conference. This will be the first time that both developed and developing countries will commit to emissions reductions.

The Lima conference is viewed as particularly important because it is the last one before the conference in Paris. The main aim of the Lima conference is to deliver a draft text that can be negotiated over the next year and ensure a meaningful agreement is reached in Paris.