Tough Paris climate change agreement still possible after Lima talks

Negotiations are on track after the climate change summit in Peru

December's United Nations-backed climate change summit in Lima, Peru, teetered on the edge of collapse towards the end and produced final communiques couched in vaguer language than many environmental groups and some western countries would have liked. But the outcome has kept talks on track ahead of next December's crucial meeting in Paris, where a major new global agreement is due to be signed, which could result in much tougher action to curb carbon and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  The Paris agreement is intended to provide a new paradigm to replace that established under the Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, which effectively put the onus on a few developed countries with a long