LAUSR

The North–South divide has blurred with the signing of the China-United States Climate Announcement and the subsequent Lima Agreement because longer term transformations rather than shorter term emission reductions are now centre-stage. With sustainability being considered in terms of the use and distribution, not scarcity, of natural resources climate change is now a part of the sustainable development goals and the G20 agenda, moving closer to a global solution. Lima witnessed the end game of a 20-year-old negotiation for diluting the differentiation between countries at different levels of development based on international environmental law and notions of historical responsibility. Developing countries are now seeing climate change as integral to their longer term transformations and are focussing, not on the means of implementation, but on outcomes. This opens possibilities for new forms of international cooperation that moves away from ‘burden sharing’ to ‘sharing prosperity’. The shift provides a way forward in dealing with the underlying issue of the climate negotiations that has divided countries – how to ensure equity, fairness and justice in a situation where some 400 million people in India and 550 million in Africa, more than the population of the United States and the European Union, lack electricity. This underlying issue prolonged negotiations at Lima by 32 hours over the designated time and not what countries are prepared to do till 2030 to meet the challenge, because two-third of global emissions are already covered under announcements by the United States, China and the European Union.