UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged nations to seize a shrinking opportunity to tame global warming as ministers negotiated a new world pact to slash soaring greenhouse gas emissions and Australia announced it would contribute $A200 million to a climate fund.
"There is still a chance to stay within the internationally agreed ceiling" of warming under 2C from pre-industrial levels, the UN secretary general told negotiators in Lima.
"But the window of opportunity is fast narrowing," he warned on Tuesday, adding: "We can no longer afford to burn our way to prosperity."
Ban opened a high-level segment of the December 1-12 talks, with ministers bringing much-needed political muscle to the final four days of a fraught process.
Parties remain far apart on key aspects of a deal they have vowed to sign in Paris in December next year and implement from 2020.
"Our planet has a fever and it is getting hotter every day," Ban told journalists on the sidelines of the talks.
"This is our only world: we have a moral and political responsibility. We simply must find greener ways of powering progress."
Ministers went straight from the opening ceremony into their first talks on Tuesday, kicking off with the tough issue of climate finance for the developing world.
This will be followed on Wednesday with discussions on the even thornier issue of "differentiation" - how to divide the burden for carbon cuts between rich and poor countries.
On Tuesday (Wednesday AEDT) Australia pledged $A200 million and Belgium $US51.6 million euros ($A55.83 million) to the Green Climate Fund, the main vehicle for dispersing finance to the developing world.
As a result the fund broke through the $US10 billion ($A10.82 billion) level perceived by observers as a minimum requirement for rich nations to show good faith in the process.
Ministers will also hold bilateral discussions with Ban, who nailed climate change to the top of the agenda in September by hosting a special summit in New York which yielded vows of renewed commitment.
"This is now the time to implement what they have said," said Ban.
The secretary-general said he was "cautiously optimistic" of a "good result", but stressed: "That requires some political will."
The Lima talks have two main tasks: drafting a negotiating outline for the Paris deal, and reaching agreement on the format for carbon-curbing pledges that nations are to submit from the first quarter of next year.
But negotiators do not see eye to eye on some basic questions.
Among them is climate finance and adaptation help for the developing world, and how to assess whether national pledges, combined, will place the world on target for the 2C goal.
A key division is the concept of differentiation.
Developing countries want rich nations to bear a bigger share of the burden for curbing earth-warming emissions, which requires a costly shift from cheap and abundant fossil fuels to less polluting energy sources.
But developed nations like the US and Australia point the finger at major developing emitters like China and India that rely heavily on highly polluting fossil fuels - coal, oil and gas - to power their rapid growth.
Bolivia's President Evo Morales said on Tuesday the process was driven by "hypocrisy", with developing nations like his being sacrificed for the interests of profit and capitalism.
"It's not a dialogue among equals ... we've been moved like pawns in a game," he said.
Poor countries and small island states at high risk of climate change-induced sea level rises want guarantees of finance and assistance for adaptation enshrined in the new agreement.
But the European Union and other developed states say the focus must be on mitigation - jargon for emissions cuts.
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