About 190 nations have agreed on the building blocks of a new-style global deal due in 2015 to combat climate change amid warnings that far tougher action will be needed to limit rising world temperatures.

Under the Lima deal, governments will submit national plans for reining in greenhouse gas emissions by an informal deadline of March 31, 2015, to form the basis of a global agreement due at a summit in Paris in a year's time.

The texts, breaking deadlock among weary delegates almost two days into overtime after two weeks of talks, appeased developing countries led by China and India concerned that previous drafts imposed too heavy a burden on emerging economies compared to the rich.

India's environment minister, Prakash Javedekar, said the text preserved the notion enshrined in a 1992 climate convention that the rich have to lead the way in making cuts in greenhouse gas emissions.

"We've got what we wanted," Mr Javedeka said.

The text also satisfied rich nations led by the United States who say it is time for fast-growing emerging economies to rein in fast-rising emissions.

China is now the biggest greenhouse gas emitter ahead of the United States, the EU and India.

"This is a good document to pave the way to Paris," EU climate action and energy commissioner Miguel Arias Canete told Reuters.

"What I'm observing is the emergence of a new form of international cooperation on climate change where you have all countries coming together, which is unprecedented," Jennifer Morgan, global director of the climate program at the World Resources Institute NGO, told the ABC from Lima.

Chinese clash with the Americans

Earlier the UN talks had been threatened with collapse after China clashed with the United States and led emerging nations to reject a compromise outline of an agreement.

The clash between the two top emitters of greenhouse gases underscored that an agreement jointly announced by US president Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping last month to combat climate change did not translate into a new, common approach.

Under the Lima deal, national pledges will be added up in a report by November 1, 2015, to assess their aggregate effect in slowing rising temperatures.

The pledges: Should be submitted by the first quarter of 2015 by "those parties ready to do so", and as soon as possible thereafter by the rest.

Should be submitted by the first quarter of 2015 by "those parties ready to do so", and as soon as possible thereafter by the rest. Will be self-determined.

Will be self-determined. Must improve on a nation's current carbon-cutting undertakings.

Must improve on a nation's current carbon-cutting undertakings. May include information on the base year used as a reference for emissions cuts, time frame for implementation, and the methodology for calculating the numbers.

May include information on the base year used as a reference for emissions cuts, time frame for implementation, and the methodology for calculating the numbers. Will be published on the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

Will be published on the website of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Will be assessed by the UNFCCC secretariat on their aggregate effect on the UN goal to curb global warming to two degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels.



But, after opposition led by China, there will not be a full-blown review to compare each nation's level of ambition.

Ms Morgan denied that Beijing is emerging as a roadblock to a new global deal in Paris.

"They, like every other country, are defending their interests and in the end here they worked hard to get an agreement just like everybody else," she said.

"The fact that they are acting in reducing their emissions and shifting to non-fossil energy systems is really quite significant."

Some environmental groups, however, said the deal, reached at a tent city on a military base in Lima, was far too weak.

"We went from weak to weaker to weakest," Samantha Smith of the WWF conservation group said of successive drafts at the Lima talks.

"This leaves a huge amount for governments and everyone else to do in the next 12 months."

Two degree warming goal in doubt

The UN Climate Change Secretariat says that the combined pledges by all nations likely in Paris will be too weak to achieve a goal of limiting warming to an agreed goal of two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times.

"Every country needs to be doing more than they're currently doing in order to close the gap and stay below two degrees," said Ms Morgan.

"I think what Paris is about is keeping that two degree goal within sight, and every country doing more than it had planned to do anyway, and just stepping it up."

ABC/Reuters