At the core of the proposed climate accord are detailed domestic policy plans to cut hydrocarbon-based emission to be put up by each country in the next six months. These plans are to be then ratified by the UN by December next and implemented by 2020. Given two of the worst emitters, the US and China, have already announced ambitious emission reduction targets, it is for the rest of the world, including India, to show some commitment to cuts by announcing individual targets, even non-binding ones, and work towards their realisation. By placing the onus on every country to act, the new accord departs from the earlier ones, like the Kyoto Protocol which had been scuttled with the US refusing to ratify it because it was perceived as fixing the responsibility to act on climate change solely on developed countries. But it is the fact that the run-up to the new accord will encourage aggressive international monitoring a verification of each country’s cut policy that has pushed the Lima talks to the brink of failure. In sum, the talks at Lima, despite starting with a template that was likely to find wider acceptance than its predecessors, are headed towards ending with a whimper.