The UN's climate talks in Lima look to be in trouble as agreement among the 190 nations taking part proves elusive
ADVERTISEMENTIt is the last day of the UN’s climate talks in Lima, but they could go into Saturday as the draft document the talks are supposed to agree on is dividing opinion.
The US is trying to take the lead, bolstered by its recent climate deal with the Chinese , but its own policies have protesters angry.
“I’m here to call on the US government to start taking action at home, to keep our commitments to two degrees Celsius global temperature rise limits, and to take that fight home and translate that into rejecting fossil fuel infrastructure and investing in renewable energy infrastructure,” said one young woman.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, while a strong advocate for action, may soon have to decide on the Keystone tar sands oil pipeline from Canada, one of the dirtiest energy sources on the planet.
“I know the debates over who should do what and how hard fought and how complex. And if it weren’t hard this would have been solved a while ago. But the fact is we simply don’t have time to sit around going back and forth about whose responsibility it is to act. Pretty simple folks: it’s everyone’s responsibility.,” warned Kerry.
Anti-Keystone and environmental protesters have maintained a constant presence at the talks, and say Kerry’s speech sounded like the death-knell for Keystone, but with tens of billions of dollars in play, no-one can be sure.