The main task for negotiators at the United Nations climate talks in Lima last week was simple: lay out the rules for the emissions pledges that countries will submit over the next six months. Countries had already agreed to put forth plans, each according to its own needs, capabilities and circumstances, and were riding a small wave of optimism after the surprise announcement in the lead-up to the talks that China and the United States had agreed to cut their emissions. The question was how to register and interpret these commitments going into the headline summit in Paris next year. It is hard to overstate the simplicity of this task, especially relative to the magnitude of the challenge at hand. And yet negotiators went into double overtime fighting old fights, and walked away with something that bears a clear resemblance to nothing.
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