It finally ended in the early morning hours of Sunday December 14th. After two long weeks of negotiations delegations at the COP 20 in Lima adopted a very watered down and streamlined final decision on further advancing the Durban platform for a new agreement by 2020, daringly mislabeled the “Lima Call for Climate Action”. This is an underwhelming outcome, not a success. The Lima climate conference did not deliver even though expectations were low from the start. An unholy alliance of political and corporate elites both in developed and developing countries seems to believe that some meager voluntary pledges – too little too late – are enough to move beyond business-as-usual, but their actions only serve to cement it further. While strengthening the rights of corporations and increasing their role and visibility in the negotiations, the Lima conference did next to nothing to support human rights, particularly gender equality and the rights of indigenous peoples. This is not only in sharp contrast to the realities of climate change impacts on the ground but also to the growing number of ordinary people, social movements and organizations taking the streets from New York to Lima demanding real climate action and most of all: climate justice. Rather than accelerating progress and ambition, the paltry outcome of COP 20 risks putting the UN climate negotiations into slow-motion and inertia on the road to the Paris climate conference next year when governments are expected to sign a new global agreement. The future of international climate politics remains disconcertingly uncertain with the Lima Call for Climate Action resembling nothing more than the “sound of silence” of (non-)decision-makers.
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