Talks on climate agreement kick off in Lima

UN climate negotiations get underway today in Lima with the aim of finalising the building blocks of a new global agreement.

The fortnight-long conference will work on a draft negotiating text for a new global climate agreement set to be adopted next year in Paris.

Observers say Paris will be better placed to crunch a deal than the failed Copenhagen conference in 2009 because the world’s biggest emitters, the EU, the US and China, have already committed to new emission reductions.