UNFCCC Executive Secretary Christiana Figueres and COP20 President and Peruvian Minister of Environment Manuel Pulgar celebrate the approval of the proposed compromise in Lima on Dec. 14, 2014. U.N. members on Sunday adopted a format for national pledges to cut greenhouse gases, the heart of a planned pact to defeat climate change. (Cris Bouroncle/AFP/Getty Images)

After two weeks of discussions and arguments over climate change, negotiators in Peru have finally reached a draft accord, called the Lima Call for Climate Action, signed at the eleventh hour of the talks. The agreement stipulates that the more than 190 participating countries take some action toward mitigating climate change, and put that action in writing. Plans will be reviewed ahead of Paris talks in December 2015, when world leaders are expected to sign a final deal.

“Governments arrived in Lima on a wave of positive news and optimism resulting from the climate action announcements of the European Union, China and the United States,” Christiana Figueres, Executive Secretary of the UN Framework on Climate Change, said in a news release. Figueres was referring to the pledge those three groups made to limit emissions.

“They leave Lima on a fresh wave of positivity towards Paris with a range of key decisions agreed and action-agendas launched,” she added.

The Lima agreement takes a different approach than past efforts such as these. For example, it doesn’t include specific emissions decreases countries must reach, The New York Times reported last week. “Instead, it includes provisions requiring that all nations, rich and poor, commit to policies to mitigate their emissions. Countries that sign on to the deal will commit to announcing, by March, detailed, hard-numbers plans laying out how they will cut emissions after 2020.”

One sticking point was whether to hold first world and third world countries to the same level of accountability. Language in the approved draft — the fourth one in Lima — addressed that, noting the shared goals but “differentiated responsibilities” of countries. “The Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,” the draft read. “Accordingly, the developed country Parties should take the lead in combating climate change and the adverse effects thereof.”

Not everyone feels the draft agreement will accomplish anything. “The text went from weak to weaker to weakest, and it’s very weak indeed,” Sam Smith, WWF chief of climate policy told the Associated Press. Added Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists, “It’s definitely watered down from what we expected.”

When the talks started on Dec. 1, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal, Peru’s environment minister, called the meeting a “crucial moment” in the fight to protect the planet from further harm from climate change. A signed draft is another big step, he said. “Lima has given new urgency towards fast tracking adaptation and building resilience across the developing world…. Governments have left with a far clearer vision.”

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