Channel NewsAsia 14 Dec 14;
LIMA: More than 170 countries agreed on Sunday (Dec 14) the first steps to a new pact to combat climate change, which came at the end of the United Nations Climate Conference in Lima, Peru.
Under the accord, governments will submit national plans for reining in greenhouse gases by March next year. These plans will form the basis of a global agreement due at a summit in Paris in a year’s time.
Minister for Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan attended the Lima conference. In a Facebook post, he said “after protracted, many almost all night negotiations, the conference closed successfully with some last minute minor surgery to the text.”
Dr Balakrishnan doubts that initial contributions by all countries will be adequate for solving the enormous problem. But he added that it was “a start” and hopes that more can be done collectively in the future.
The minister said though Singapore may be tiny, the country’s negotiating team did more than their fair share to facilitate a successful agreement. He said Singapore will always have to work harder, usually quietly behind the scenes, to prove its value and relevance to the world.
- CNA/ec
