Hundreds of billions of dollars of climate finance may now be flowing across the globe annually according to a landmark assessment presented today to governments meeting in Lima, Peru at the UN Climate Convention meeting.

The assessment - which includes a summary and recommendations by the UNFCCC Standing Committee on Finance and a technical report by experts - is the first of assessment reports that puts together information and data on financial flows supporting emission reductions and adaptation within countries and via international support.

The assessment puts the lower range of global total climate finance flows at $340 billion a year for the period 2011-2012, with the upper end at $650 billion, and possibly higher.
 

An international goal of providing $100 billion each year by 2020 to help vulnerable countries adapt to climate change impacts and pursue green growth is far off what is needed to achieve a global clean revolution, the U.N.'s top climate change official said on Wednesday.
 

Wednesday marked day three of international climate talks in Lima and the Peruvian government has outlined a flagship project exploring cleaner development in Peru.

The Deputy Minister for the Strategic Development of Natural Resources, Gabriel Quijandr�a, said the intention of the project, called PlanCC, was to support decision-making at all levels. Quijandr�a said that although Peru's contribution to global climate change was marginal, and the plan ambitious, cutting emissions made economic sense.

Peru is on the cutting edge in the use of clean energies, affirmed the Director of Renewable Energy of the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), Pedro Gamio. 
Peruvian government is showing a "strong commitment" with environment preservation, Gamio pointed out. 
The Peruvian delegate at the Conference of the Parties (COP20), said today 55% of Peru's energy is renewable thanks to wind, sun and biomass. 

On COP20's third day delegation statements were considered "positive" by Peru's Environment minister and COP President, Manuel Pulgar-Vidal. 
Statements by delegations are directed to achieve an agreement on climate change.

Decades of illegal gold mining has turned vast swaths of Peruvian rainforest in to pocked, mercury-poisoned, desolate wastelands. 

In the south-eastern region of Madre de Dios, in the past decade alone, mining has stripped 230 square miles of forest and poisoned the rivers. 
 

Natural-products companies based in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere have steadily built a market for maca, a small turnip-like root that grows in high mountain areas, and that is believed to give a burst of energy, especially as a sort of natural Viagra.
 

The Ministry of Justice has appointed an interim State Prosecutor, Joel Segura, while it is fielding candidates to replace the country's top anticorruption lawyer, Christian Salas, whose resignation was announced on the weekend.