Agreement in Poland on climate change rulebook

Nearly 200 nations have overcame political divisions and agreed on rules for implementing a landmark global climate deal but critics say it is not ambitious enough.

Reuters reports that after two weeks of talks in the Polish city of Katowice, nations finally reached consensus on a more detailed framework for the 2015 Paris Agreement which aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to "well below" two degrees celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Before the talks started, many expected that the deal would not be as robust as is needed.

Still, exhausted ministers managed to bridge a series of divides to produce a 156-page rulebook - which is broken down into themes such as how countries will report and monitor their national pledges to curb greenhouse gas emissions and update their emissions plans.

However, an eight-page decision framework text was criticised by some countries and green groups for failing to urge increased ambitions on emissions cuts sufficiently to curb rising temperatures.