Lima agreement puts countries on record for carbon reduction plans

Science Focus

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Early Sunday morning, negotiators in Lima, Peru, came to an agreement that set a deadline of next year for countries to come up with a plan for reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases. Although the agreement is non-binding, recent developments, such as the US-China emissions agreement, suggest that there will be substantial international pressure for every country to come through with a plan.

192 countries are party to the Lima agreement, which asks the group to come up with what are being called "Nationally Determined Contributions." These will include things like inventories of greenhouse gases and the sources that produce them, as well as the methods nations used to obtain these numbers. The nations will also have to produce a detailed plan for how these emissions will be reduced. All of this is due by March of next year, and the results will serve as a foundation for the continuing negotiations toward a binding treaty.

Unfortunately, there's nothing binding about the current agreement. Those pushing for it are effectively hoping that all the signatories will be too embarrassed to show up at future meetings empty-handed.

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