After two weeks of intense negotiations at the UN climate change conference, the Least Developed Countries (LDC) Group hopes that the arrival of Ministers has injected much needed guidance to the discussion which has seen only sluggish progress so far.

The Chair of the LDC Group, Ram Prasad Lamsal of Nepal said: “The LDCs are still working towards our common goal with a strong, fighting spirit to ensure that we make substantial progress on the last day. We welcome our Ministers to the conference. They have been engaging with equal fervency, bringing to the forefront the extreme vulnerability of our countries.”

The first week of negotiations saw many hours spent on issues regarding ways of working rather than substantive aspects of the new agreement to be adopted next year in Paris reports LDC Group Media Release issued by IIED.

Not forgetting the urgency of adopting key decisions in Lima to lay the foundations for 2015, the LDCs were keen to unlock the gridlocked talks.

 Dr Krishna C. Paudel, Secretary, Ministry of Science, Technology and Environment of Nepal, said: “It was a member of the LDC Group who first proposed forming the ‘Friends of the Chair’ group which helped resolve some of the matters of process and allowed the substantive discussion to move forward.”

 Dr Paudel also said: “Finance plays the biggest role in unlocking mistrust and facilitating developing country climate action. We need scaled up and more predictable and sustainable climate finance flowing into not only the Green Climate Fund, but also and in particular the Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF) which is in dire need of replenishment”.

 Lamsal stated: “We have had tough days and long evenings of talks, and now only have few hours left ahead of us.  But the LDC group remains fully committed to do whatever it takes to reach climate neutrality by 2017 well before the end of the Century, which is fully in line with the 1.5 degree goal as called for by the latest scientific reports.”Ambassador Ian Fry from Tuvalu, who leads the negotiations for the 2015 Agreement on behalf of the LDC Group, said: “We only have one day left in Lima, and we urge Parties to quicken the pace of negotiations so that we can fulfill our Lima mandate.”