Instead of laying the groundwork for a historic climate agreement, the 12-day UN conference in Lima is set to deliver only minimal consensus.

Almost two weeks of talks among delegates from 195 countries did not lead to any notable actual decisions on comparable, concrete criteria that countries should adopt in the effort to halt global warming.

However, officials were hoping progress could still be made to allow a historic global climate agreement to be signed in Paris in late 2015, as planned.

The treaty would ideally limit human-induced global warming to 2C above pre-industrial levels by the end of this century.

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One of the central issues is the level of individual national commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Top carbon emitter China and other major developing countries opposed plans for a review process so the pledges can be compared against one another before Paris.

Their reluctance angered some delegates from countries on the front lines of climate change.

"We are shocked that some of our colleagues would want to avoid a process to hold their proposed targets up to the light," said Tony de Brum, the foreign minister of the Marshall Islands, a Pacific country of low-lying atolls at risk of being flooded by rising seas.

Bickering over the relative responsibilities of countries that historically benefited from resource-intensive development and those who did not has fractured the talks, including on the sidelines where activists have demanded more action from wealthy countries.

The conference leadership presented to delegates in the early hours of Friday a text that had been cut from 50 pages to just seven, which on many issues contained only vague suggestions for action at the national level.

The thorniest issue remained how much more industrialised countries should contribute towards the fight against climate change.

At the start of Friday's talks, activists decried the draft agreement's paltry commitments and called for broader action from rich countries.

Winnie Byanyima of Oxfam said the deal was too weak in mandating help with adaption for poorer countries that, for the most part, have not contributed to the crisis but will experience its effects.

"A strong deal should include commitments from the developed countries to put money down for the poor countries to be able to adapt, and to address the climate impacts that they're already facing," she said.

While a recent unexpected emissions mitigation agreement between the US and China catalysed the talks, European politicians called for other top emitters to do more.

"Europe is losing its leadership role in the climate issue," said Reinhard Buetikofer, president of the European Green Party.

"This makes the climate negotiations in Lima even more difficult."