Deal reached in overtime at UN climate summit in Peru

Delegates from 190 countries agreed on a deal to curb climate change Sunday, as United Nations climate talks in Lima, Peru, entered a second day of overtime.

“We’ve got what we wanted,” said Indian Environment Minister Prakash Javedekar, Reuters reported.

Under the new agreement, countries will submit pledges to cut greenhouse gasses to the U.N. by March 31, 2015. Those pledges will be tallied up in a Nov. 1, 2015 report to determine their effectiveness in slowing rising temperatures and will be used to shape a broader international agreement at the December 2015 summit in Paris.

In an effort to provide added financial support to poor nations made most vulnerable due to climate change, the U.N. has set up the Green Climate Fund, which funnels money from rich nations to poorer ones. During the talks in Peru, more than $10 billion was pledged to the fund.

The climate talks hit a stalemate on Friday, when rich and poor countries disagreed on how to outline pledges on taking action on climate change in their countries beyond 2020, the Associated Press reported.

“Now certainly, the biggest emitters, including the United States – and I’m proud that President Obama has accepted that responsibility – have to contribute more to the solution,” U.S. Secretary of State, John Kerry said in a statement on Thursday. “But ultimately, every nation on earth has to apply current science and make state-of-the-art energy choices if we’re going to have any hope of leaving our future to the next generation to the safe and healthy planet that they deserve.”

Climate change has been a hot-button issue in 2014, which is on track to be the hottest year on record.

In November, the U.S. and China reached a historic agreement to drastically curb carbon emissions after months of secret talks. One month prior, European Union leaders agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2030.

In September, hundreds of thousands of protesters participated in the People’s Climate March in New York City and in similar marches throughout the world, ahead of the Sept. 23 U.N. Climate Summit. 

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