利馬氣候談判艱難落下帷幕

The fortnight it took for UN climate talks to finally stagger to an end in Lima yesterday morning has shaken many assumptions about what it will take to achieve the historic global climate deal due to be sealed in Paris next December.

持續兩週的聯合國氣候談判利馬會議昨日上午蹣跚撐到終點。對於需要付出怎樣的努力才能在明年12月的巴黎會議上達成歷史性的全球氣候協定，這兩週的經歷動搖了人們的許多設想。

“If so much blood flows negotiating the prenuptial, what does that mean for the marriage?” asked Yvo de Boer, a former UN climate chief who heads the Global Green Growth Institute that helps developing nations.

“如果談判婚前協議要流這麼多血，那麼這對婚姻意味着什麼？”曾是聯合國氣候變化機構負責人、如今執掌全球綠色增長研究所(Global Green Growth Institute)的伊沃•德波爾(Yvo de Boer)表示。全球綠色增長研究所爲發展中國家提供幫助。

The Lima meeting did eventually manage to fulfil its main aim of approving guidelines for how countries will set out their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the lead-up to the Paris agreement.

利馬會議最終確實設法達到了主要目標，即批准了各國在巴黎會議之前應當如何制定減排計劃的指引。

The agreement, if it is approved, would be the first to commit all countries to make such reductions.

有望在巴黎達成的協定如果獲得批准，將是首份要求所有國家削減溫室氣體排放的全球氣候協定。

But this only happened after a fraught round of negotiations that ran more than 30 hours overtime and sometimes appeared to be in danger of collapsing.

但上述指引是在經過一輪艱辛的談判之後才達成的。利馬談判超時30多個小時，而且有時似乎面臨談崩的危險。

This is not that unusual. Few of the mammoth annual climate negotiations the UN has conducted over the past 20 years have ended on time, forcing negotiators to sleep where they can in their offices as meetings drag on through the night.

這種局面並非那麼不同尋常。過去20年裏，聯合國主持的龐大年度氣候談判很少按時結束，各國談判代表不得不在辦公室裏隨便找個地方小睡片刻，因爲會議會徹夜舉行。

What made this year’s round of pyjama diplomacy especially sobering, however, was the nature of the disputes and the expectations that had preceded it.

然而，今年這輪“睡衣外交”特別發人深省的地方在於糾紛的性質和會前的期望。

The delegates who arrived in the temporary white tent venue that was erected for the conference in Peru’s army headquarters had been buoyed by events that had raised hopes this meeting would be far less contentious than its predecessors.

當談判代表們抵達祕魯陸軍總部爲本次會議搭建的臨時白色帳篷場地時，他們得到近期一些事態的鼓舞；這些事態加大了各方對今年的會議將比往年更加順利的期待。

The most important were a landmark US-China emissions pact in November and a package of hefty pledges from wealthy countries to help poorer nations deal with climate change that topped the $10bn mark during the Lima conference.

最重要的是美國和中國在11月達成的具有里程碑意義的減排協議，以及富國爲幫助窮國應對氣候變化而作出的一系列慷慨承諾，這些承諾在利馬會議期間突破了100億美元大關。

These commitments were carefully orchestrated to overcome a long-held suspicion among poor countries that they would never get enough help to create a low-carbon economy and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

這些承諾經過精心策劃，目的是化解貧窮國家長期以來的懷疑，即它們將永遠得不到足夠幫助來創建低碳經濟和適應氣候變化的影響。

As a result, the UK’s energy secretary, Ed Davey, voiced the views of many when he declared on arrival in Lima: “I am more confident we can achieve a global climate change deal than I have ever been before.”

其結果是，英國能源大臣埃德•戴維(Ed Davey)在抵達利馬時說出了很多人的心裏話：“我比以往任何時候都更加相信，我們能夠達成一份全球氣候變化協定。”

It soon became evident that this conference was going to be dogged by the same rifts between rich and poor countries that have long blocked progress in climate talks.

但人們很快就看清本次會議將再次受到富國和窮國之間分歧的困擾。這些分歧曾長期阻礙氣候變化談判取得進展。

Eleven days into the talks, delegates had managed to agree only one 28-word paragraph for the final text of the conference outcome. It said countries should “intensify their high-level engagement” to accelerate action on climate change.

談判進入第11天之際，各國代表只就會議成果最終文本中一個28個單詞長的段落達成共識。該段稱，各國應當“加強高層接觸”，以加速對氣候變化採取行動。

Developing countries have long railed against calls for them to help fix a pollution problem caused by nations that prospered from it.

長期以來，發展中國家一直強烈反對呼籲它們幫助解決由已靠化石燃料實現繁榮的國家造成的污染問題。

Rich countries say that is increasingly unworkable when China is the world’s largest emitter and India is catching up fast.

富國表示，在中國已成爲全球最大排放國、印度正迅速趕上的情況下，光靠富國減排已經越來越行不通。

The EU and the US had hoped the talks would be limited to making sure the pledges countries were to volunteer for the Paris deal would focus on emissions reduction.

歐盟和美國此前希望，利馬談判的範圍將侷限於確保各國爲巴黎協定自願提交的承諾會側重於減排。

Instead, it rapidly became clear that developing countries wanted to make sure the pledges also included a recognition of the need for financial aid, as well as a firmer acknowledgment of the differences between developed and developing nations.

但很快就變得明朗的是，發展中國家希望確保這些承諾還包括承認有必要提供財務援助，以及對於發達國家和發展中國家之間分歧的更確切承認。

Amendments in the meeting’s draft outcome, including the insertion of a reference to the loss and damage vulnerable countries faced from climate change, eventually ensured the talks succeeded.

對會議成果草案的修訂，包括插入關於脆弱國家面對氣候變化所造成損失和損害的內容，終於確保利馬談判取得了成功。

But the effort it took to achieve this foreshadows the challenges that lie ahead before Paris.

但是，爲此付出的努力預示着巴黎會議面臨的挑戰。

“I think everybody expected this would be easier,” said Jake Schmidt, a veteran climate talks expert from the Natural Resources Defense Council, a US environmental charity. “What we’ve seen in Lima shows Paris is not going to be an easy undertaking.”

“我想此前大家都預期本次會議會更容易些，”美國環境慈善組織——自然資源保護委員會(Natural Resources Defense Council)的資深氣候談判專家傑克•施密特(Jake Schmidt)表示，“我們在利馬看到的情況表明，巴黎談判不會容易。”