Countries agree to spell out plans on climate change after fraught talks in Peru

Hopes for a new, legally binding global agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are higher after a United Nations climate summit in Peru. But countries have left themselves a mountain of tricky negotiations, as they ducked the fraught issues of how deep the cuts should be and how much money will be made available to help poor countries adapt. The Lima conference, held from 1 to 14 December, was the last full ministerial meeting before the Paris conference in November 2015, when all countries are expected to sign up to a new treaty. However, what were expected to be relatively straightforward negotiations—after the United States and China, the world’s two biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, agreed their positions in advance—overran the schedule …