Talks see progress on tackling climate change: official

A man walks past a teddy polar bear displayed to bring attention to a news conference by the Arctic Methane Emergency Group at the venue of the UN Climate Change Conference COP 20 in Lima Dec 4, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

LIMA, Dec -- The ongoing annual UN global climate change talks in Lima have seen advancement in the pursuit of agreement and solutions to face the negative impacts of global warming, an official said here on Friday.

Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the 20th UN Climate Change Conference, said significant progress was made in the first five days of the two-week meeting.

Although Figueres admitted that so far concrete results have not been achieved in the plenary sessions, she did not rule out that commitments will be achieved in the days to come.

The talks are of great importance for the agreement addressing climate change, planned to be passed at the end of 2015 in Paris and come into force in 2020.

However, the issue of fundraising for a new UN Green Climate Fund (GCF), remains unsettled.

So far, the GCF has garnered $10 billion in the past four years from the international community -- only one-tenth of the amount promised by developed nations per year to help developing nations cut emissions and adapt to climate change by 2020.

The fund is to finance climate change mitigation and adaptation projects, such as renewable energy and energy efficiency, transportation sector and forestry issues, said Gabriel Quijandria, Peruvian vice minister of Strategic Development of Natural Resources.

More than 10,000 delegates from 190 countries, organization and regions are taking part in the conference. They are expected to make a draft towards the next meeting to be held in Paris, France in 2015.