The climate, energy and building minister has downplayed the impact of the deal reached in the UN climate talks in Lima on Sunday, which concluded two weeks of talks and negotiations that ran past deadline into the weekend.
”With this agreement in Lima we have taken a small step in the fight against climate change,” Rasmus Helveg Petersen said in a press release.
”But I'm going to keep my work clothes on because we need to increase the level of ambition if we are to win the battle against climate change.”
Crucial sticking point
The talks, which were scheduled to end on Friday, carried on until Sunday as frustration mounted over one particular issue: whether and how developing nations should take on obligations to cut emissions, and if that would be any different from the obligations set for developed nations.
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The Climate, Energy and Building Ministry's statement notes a ”sharp division” between what developed and developing countries are responsible for, and that ”global growth in energy use and emissions in the future will take place in the major emerging markets rather than in the traditional industrialised countries”.
”We must reach an ambitious climate agreement next year in Paris in which all countries must contribute to reducing CO2 emissions,” Petersen said. ”It will not be easy.”
Decisions agreed, agendas launched
Christiana Figueres, the conference executive secretary, admitted the meetings were ”very, very challenging”, but noted the negotiations ended with ”a range of key decisions agreed [upon] and action-agendas launched”.
Denmark was one of the 196 countries represented at the talks. The COP20 deal is meant to be a precursor and initial outline to a future deal to be agreed upon in Paris in December 2015 to reduce global emissions, which is intended to take effect in 2020.
