UPDATED 9.36pm: After marathon discussions in Peru, UN members have reached an agreement in the battle against climate change.

The 20th UN conference on climate change has adopted a format for pledges to cut greenhouse gases, and approved a broad blueprint for negotiations leading up to the historic deal - due to be signed in Paris in December next year.

Paul Young: Deal reached at UN climate summit

The Lima Call for Climate Action sets down the foundations for what is envisioned as the most ambitious agreement in environmental history.

Our Climate Change Minister is pleased with the agreement out of top-level climate talks in Peru.

Minister Tim Groser says the meeting was never going to have a dramatic outcome - but it's a stepping stone to the next round of talks.

"This is now a slimmer document of about four to five pages. It's been agreed, so we're slowly making progress and next year will be very, very interesting to see if we can get something over the line."

Next year's signed deal will take effect by 2020.

It aims to keep global warming below the two degree threshold for preventing dangerous climate change.

The Guardian environment correspondent Suzanne Goldenberg told Rachel Smalley that it's "an agreement for the first time that will commit all countries, so in theory this is a very big deal."

Prime Minister John Key says the Government will discuss the issue in more detail next year, ahead of the signing of the Paris deal. 

"Some very minor progress has been made, but everyone's working towards Paris," he says.

But Greens spokesperson Kennedy Graham says it's simply a call for future action, rather than anything concrete.

He says the chances of the agreement, and the voluntary contributions countries are expected to make being met within a year, are remote.

Graham believes it's still not binding because 196 representatives is too many to have at a negotiating table.

"Can you imagine the Auckland City Council deciding critical issues with one hundred and ninety six councillors? It's not going to work," he says.

Paul Young from climate group Generation Zero told Mike Hosking it's more a vague pledge than serious promise.

"There was a wave of optimism heading into it so it's been a bit of a disappointment," he says. 

Generation Zero is delivering lumps of coal to the offices of 14 National MPs this morning as part of their Cut The Gap campaign.

Young says they think the government has been naughty this Christmas.

"The UN climate conference has just wrapped up and Mr. Tim Groser didn't do anything as we were calling for in terms of committing to new action so that's why we're doing this," he says.