Deal is only a limited achievement - Climate change

Former president Mary Robinson is right to be critical of how little progress was made in Lima towards slowing the frightening pace of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

Behind the strained UN talks in Peru, where a battle raged between rich and poor nations, the burning issue was whether or not our endangered planet can be saved. Unfortunately, the answer is no clearer in the aftermath of a life-and-death meeting which overran by two days in desperate search of a plan that might or might not work.

As the UN special envoy on this vital topic, Mrs Robinson yesterday hit out strongly at governments for doing “just enough” to keep the search alive. But she went on to say not enough was done at the conference to create confidence that the world is ready to adopt “an equitable and ambitious, legally binding climate agreement in Paris next year”.