Copenhagen climate change conference ends in non-binding agreement

The UN climate change conference (UNFCCC) COP15 in Copenhagen ended in December 2009 with a great deal of publicity but few concrete achievements. The summit concluded with a declaration that failed to receive the full backing of all UNFCCC parties. This declaration lacks certain elements that the EU had declared as crucial, including collective targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. The conference failed to set a 2010 deadline for concluding a treaty, and does not mention the need for a legally binding agreement. The conference also failed to deliver a comprehensive agreement on compensating countries for preserving forests, which could play a crucial role in curbing climate change.

The declaration calls for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases “with a view” to keeping global warming below 2°C, considered the threshold beyond which climate change may spiral out of control. It also asks developed nations to make deep, verifiable cuts. Developing countries would begin curbing their emissions and report their results every two years, with “provisions for international consultations and analysis”. It will be up to individual countries however to determine how far to go.

Other key points include the commitment by developed countries to register their formal emissions reduction pledges for the year 2020 by the end of January 2010. Developing countries are asked to reduce their rising emissions below business as usual (BAUⁱ) levels by pledging "nationally appropriate mitigation actions” and register these also by the end of January 2010.

Developing countries are also to send reports to the UNFCCC on mitigation actions taken every two years.

There will be a review of the accord's implementation in 2015. This review will include considering whether the goal should be to prevent global average temperatures rising by more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Commission's work on carbon leakage will also continue as planned, with a decision on the number of free carbon allowances that exposed industrial sectors will receive due to be made in 2011.

One tangible result, however, was an agreement by developed nations to spend $30bn (€21bn) over the next three years and $100bn (€70bn) by 2020 to fund projects in poor nations to promote clean energy and deal with drought, rising sea levels and other climate changes. The EU has pledged €7.2bn of the €21bn in fast-start funding, expected to come from a variety of sources, private as well as public.

The Copenhagen Accord can be found here:

http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2009/cop15/eng/l07.pdf