Lima, December 2 (teleSUR-RHC)-- The COP20 Climate Change Conference is now taking place in Peru and authorities are hopeful that it will be productive. However, critics are pointing out that the disagreements between developed and developing nations make a binding agreement unlikely.

The United Nations Conference on Climate Change, also known as the COP20, got underway on Monday in Lima, Peru. It will run for 12 days of meetings, with hundreds of government officials and representatives from NGOs in attendance.

The stated main goals of the conference were presented at the opening ceremony by the executive secretary for Climate Change, Cristiana Figueras. She stated that the COP20 seeks “to generate the necessary action before 2020 to create the basis for a strong accord in Paris, and to raise the level of ambition to gradually, and for the long term, be able to reach climate neutrality.” She concluded that such issues represent “the only way to achieve a truly sustainable development for everyone."

However, speaking at a press conference inside the COP20, Meena Raman from the Third World Network argued that developed countries lack the will to make the necessary agreements to stop global warming. She said that while developing countries have been calling for a fair and equitable approach to climate change, developed nations are only considering their national circumstances which, she said, is a formula for disaster.

Raman also believes the current targets for reducing carbon emissions by 2020 are insufficient. “You have science telling you that we have a little window of opportunity, the opposite is happening in terms of targets,” she concluded, alluding to the failure of nations to set targets that are scientifically proven to save people from climate disaster.