Why This Year's Climate Talks Are A Huge Deal

A global pact must be signed in Paris in 2015 to avert climate calamity, putting a lot of pressure on the U.N. mega-summit. This year’s talks follows historic agreements to cut emissions by the U.S., China and the EU.



















The goal of the latest round of the U.N.'s annual climate negotiations, is pretty clear. Simply speaking they need to produce a draft text that can be finalized in Paris next year, committing all countries for the first time ever to properly tackle climate change.

After years of timid agreements, the Twentieth Conference of the Parties, which kicked off this week in Peru, is the best chance in a generation to come to a deal on climate change, say diplomats.

"We have to establish lines of climate action as indelible as the Nazca Lines," said UNFCCC executive secretary, Christiana Figueres in the opening ceremony, referring to a series of mysterious symbols etched into the desert about 400km south of Lima.





















The Nazca Lines depict 200-meter wide hummingbirds, spiders and monkeys and have captivated scholars who say they were created by the Nazca culture between 400 and 650 AD.


Markus Daniel/Markus Daniel











If Lima doesn't do the groundwork and secure a draft text, the burden would fall on the talks due to take place next year in Paris.

That would complicate prospects and place this summit alongside previous disappointments like Copenhagen in 2009, where failure to provide a sweeping global treaty eroded faith in international action.

The talks to broker a deal taking effect in 2020 have been catalyzed by major announcements in the run-up to the two-week event.







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