The appearance of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Tuesday and of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore on Thursday could still buoy the talks. But with the creation of a new international global warming agreement on the line, observers say there is serious concern about the direction the talks are taking.
"If we are at the end of next week and there's a really negative mood, having just moved some of the biggest barriers in climate action in the last 20 years, then there is a real problem with our ability in this process," said Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The decisions to be taken this week are expected to lay the groundwork for the new global deal, scheduled to be signed in Paris in 2015. If the United States and other industrialized countries have their way, it will look dramatically different from the current Kyoto Protocol. That 1997 treaty obligates only wealthy countries to cut carbon, while demanding that they pay poorer nations to take voluntary action. The new deal could see all nations make unilateral pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the years after 2020.
With governments expected to declare their pledges by the first quarter of next year, wealthy nations are under intense pressure to unveil not just carbon cuts, but also the dollar figures they will deliver to help boost clean energy and protect vulnerable nations from climate change.
The United States and Europe oppose the effort, saying it will distract from the overriding goal of cutting emissions. Activists argue that wealthy countries simply don't want to be held to financial promises.
Read more at Lima Climate Talks Face Critical Test
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