At climate change meeting, poor countries step forward

A two-week U.N. conference on climate change is nearing its end in Lima, Peru. The summit tees up a big theme for further negotiations in Paris next year: Make an offer.

Countries will likely make individual pledges to take action, instead of negotiating a global treaty with requirements. In a big change from prior negotiations, historically poor nations have started offering pledges of their own. The trend started with China’s agreement with the United States, announced last month.

“The way the paradigm has been laid out for the last 20 years, developing countries – China included – really don’t have to take actions or make commitments,” said Ray Kopp, a senior fellow at the think tank Resources for the Future, from Lima. Now poorer countries are seeing evidence that they should participate, too.