Lima talks end

THAT some 190 nations have struck a deal in Lima to submit plans to combat climate change by limiting green house gas emissions by 2015 is a halfway house outcome.

There is no substitute for a transparent and verifiable system of measuring emission cuts. And if this can't be ensured then the increasing rise in global temperature can't be efficiently scaled down. Moreover, the point is if the countries are to succeed in a year's time to form the basis of a global agreement, due at a summit in Paris next year, then they have to live by and step up the urgency reflected in the Kyoto protocol.

An important headway at the COP20 in Lima is that there will no longer be two categories of nations -- which must cut emissions and which need not. So the old firewall between the developing and developed countries has been removed. A common platform to fight climate change is now there.

However, in reality, it's up to the biggest greenhouse gas emitting countries like the US, China, India, and EU countries to decide how they plan to cut emissions, and more importantly, how soon they want to implement their plans.

By agreeing to submit national plans by March 31, 2015 the road to Paris has been smoothened but the qualification of an 'informal' deadline signifies a certain tentativeness about the accord.