In the wake of the Lima summit, the Guardian sends a chilling message. It quotes Nature magazine’s special analysis that indicates a staggering 41 per cent of all amphibians on the planet now face extinction, while 26 per cent of mammal species and 13 per cent of birds are similarly threatened. “In each case, the finger of blame points directly at human activities,” says its editorial. “This change in climate has been triggered by increasing emissions — from factories and power plants — of carbon dioxide, a gas that is also being dissolved in the oceans. As a result, seas are becoming more and more acidic and hostile to sensitive habitats”.

The Jakarta Times wishes the blame game in these summits would end. Its editorial says: “If a new treaty is inked in Paris next year, taking effect five years later in 2020, the governments should start agreeing on a common period that the initial greenhouse gas emissions-cut pledges would cover — whether a five-year commitment period as pushed by the US, which has set its target for 2025, or a 10-year period as preferred by the European Union, which has set a 2030 target. But first, something should be done to deal with the thorniest issues — the money and the blame game — or everything will go up in smoke.”

The Economic Times in India believes India should be “proactive and commit to smartly boost energy efficiency and reduce the output intensity of its carbon emissions. This would, in effect, cause emissions to peak (and then decline) in the foreseeable future. In tandem, the countries that already have high per-person emissions do need to explicitly commit to bring them down in a time-bound manner”. India, says the paper, also needs “to join hands with the US and others to research and spread next-generation clean-coal technologies and rev up alternate energy sources like solar and wind power”.

The Daily Star in Bangladesh believes the time for indecision is long past. Its editorial says: “What has become imperative is to agree upon setting a limit on greenhouse gas emissions. Without a consensus in this summit, it is widely perceived that the Paris summit that is supposed to ink a deal will not be forthcoming.

“For countries like Bangladesh, which is part of 20 countries that have been identified as the ‘climate vulnerable group’, a firm commitment by advanced economies to the $10 billion [Dh36.78 billion] mitigation fund is not a matter of luxury but one of necessity.”

The Chicago Tribune zeroes in on India, which is the fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. Its editorial says: “Getting China, with its horrendous pollution problems, even to validate the idea of capping emissions is a big step forward. And it puts pressure on India to join in. An emissions cap commitment won’t be easy to get from India. Lists of the world’s most polluted cities always include a bunch in India. The country needs, for its own sake, to clean the air. And to combat global warming, global greenhouse gas emissions everywhere must come down.”

The best opportunity to get a pledge will be in January, says the Tribune, when Obama is scheduled to visit New Delhi.