Many observers of the talks expressed frustration about a lack of urgency. | REUTERS Climate talks end on blurry note

After tense eleventh-hour negotiations, delegates at international climate talks in Warsaw, Poland, could agree to only a broad set of terms aimed at setting world nations on a path toward a 2015 global warming accord while avoiding the troublesome specifics for now.

The U.S. and other countries agreed Saturday that, by early 2015, they will put forward their individual plans for lowering emissions, a move that gives nations less than a year to review the plans before key December 2015 talks in Paris. But negotiators in Warsaw failed to agree on key details, such as what the plans should include and how they should be evaluated.


Delegates hope to reach agreement on a major climate pact in Paris that would take effect in 2020. The negotiations are part of a broader, two-decade-old United Nations process that led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which the United States never ratified.

The two-week Warsaw talks, which were defined by bitter disagreements among nations, clearly illustrated the massive obstacles facing negotiators as we inch closer to 2015.

“I think what this meeting signals is that, clearly, we have our work still cut out for us,” said Jake Schmidt, international climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. “It’s a hard-fought battle and it’s going to have to intensify in the next couple years.

“Have we solved climate change this week? No.”

The talks nearly collapsed on Saturday, according to reports, amid a last-minute disagreement. India and China clashed with the U.S. over what to call the targets countries are set to propose in early 2015, The Associated Press reported. Ultimately, countries agreed to go with “contributions” instead of “commitments.”

It may seem like a minor spat, but it underscores the incredible complexity involved in getting nations with a diverse set of interests to agree to tackle climate change. For years, rich and poor nations have clashed over who should bear the brunt of the responsibility for lowering emissions. And that dynamic was on full display in Warsaw.

Negotiators made limited progress in detailing how and to what extent wealthier nations will help poorer nations deal with the effects of climate change, which only exacerbated the tension.

During the Copenhagen climate talks in 2009, richer countries set a goal of “mobilizing” $100 billion a year in financial aid by 2020. But the Warsaw talks offered few new details on how to make that goal a reality, including how much of the money will come from public sources versus private financing.

“We just don’t have a concrete plan for reaching that goal at the moment,” said Simon Bradshaw, climate change advocacy adviser for Oxfam Australia.

In a statement released Saturday before negotiators reached a final agreement, Oxfam slammed the financing language, calling it “an exercise in linguistic yoga” and adding, “[F]or the third year in a row, countries have found a new way of saying absolutely nothing.”

Oxfam and other groups — including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth Europe and the World Wildlife Fund — walked out of the talks last week, saying the meeting was “on track to deliver virtually nothing.”

Ahead of the Warsaw talks, activists and longtime observers worked to manage expectations, noting that the meeting was not expected to result in any big agreements. But some observers said the meeting nonetheless made limited progress.

“I think it was a heated debate, but I think in the end, there was progress made here so that you’ve got what you need to start building the architecture of the new agreement in a way that has a work plan to get to that agreement,” said Jennifer Morgan, director of the climate and energy program at the World Resources Institute.

But many also expressed frustration about a lack of urgency, particularly given scientific reports that paint an increasingly dire picture of a warming planet and extreme weather like the massive typhoon that devastated the Philippines earlier this month. The storm cast a shadow over the talks, with the envoy from the Philippines making an emotional plea for action at the conference.

“It’s quite clear that there’s not yet enough understanding of the real risks of climate change to people around the world. The level of ambition here is not yet adequate,” Morgan said.

Still, activists pointed to one issue in which countries made significant progress: Negotiators agreed to new rules for financing forestry protection. Forest degradation and deforestation are responsible for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

“Against the backdrop of talks that on so many other areas failed to deliver, I think this was really a bright spot,” said Nat Keohane, vice president for international climate at the Environmental Defense Fund.

As of Sunday afternoon, the White House had stayed largely silent on the talks, and President Barack Obama had not weighed in publicly.