Fifty-five Countries Meet Copenhagen Accord Deadline for Stating their Greenhouse Gas Cutback Goals
The Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) says that it has received pledges from 55 countries to limit and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. For companies, particularly large multi-nationals with facilities around the world, the pledges are a useful indication of the first or additional requirements the companies will have to meet.
The Copenhagen Accord called for countries to submit their emissions targets to the UNFCCC by the end of January. Fifty-five of the almost 200 countries in attendance in Copenhagen may not sound like much. But they represent 78 percent of all global emissions from energy use. Among industrialized countries, the commitments come from Australia, Canada, Croatia, the European Union and its member states, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, Norway, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Commitments also came from almost two dozen developing nations, including the all-important "BASIC" group (Brazil, South Africa, India, China, and the Republic of Korea).
Many commitments, particularly those of developed countries, hinge on similar commitments being made by other countries. They also use varying base years to establish their targets. Consistent with President Obama's promise at Copenhagen, the United States committed to reduce emissions "in the range of" 17 percent below 2005 levels, "in conformity with anticipated US energy and climate legislation, recognizing that the final target will be reported to the Secretariat in light of enacted legislation." The Secretariat noted that the next round of formal negotiations is scheduled for Bonn at the end of May, although several countries have indicated their wish to see a quick return to the negotiations with more meetings than the scheduled sessions. Here are the pledges from industrialized countries and here from developing countries.
Summary of the UNFCCC and Plans for Moving Forward
The 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sought to launch a global climate change regime. In 2005 the well-known Kyoto Protocol, to which a large group of developed and emerging countries became signatories, laid the groundwork for a detailed system of incentives and targets for carbon emissions reductions, but the Protocol will remain in effect only through 2012. The December 2007 meeting in Bali of the Kyoto Conference of the Parties (COP) began to address a new international climate change treaty to take effect in 2013 upon the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. Their “Bali Road Map” identified the core issues a new treaty must address: adaptation, mitigation, technology, finance, and cooperative action. [summary]
In 1992 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted as the first step toward establishing a systematic, uniform global solution to the problem of climate change. This was followed by the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, to which a large group of developed and emerging countries became signatories. The Kyoto Protocol provided signatory countries a system of incentives and targets for carbon emissions reductions. However, the Kyoto Protocol will remain in force only through 2012. A meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) in December 2007 set the groundwork for a new international climate change treaty to take effect in 2013 upon the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. The outcome of this meeting was the “Bali Road Map,” in which the COP identified the five elemental concepts around which a new treaty will be organized: adaptation, mitigation, technology, finance, and cooperative action.
Representatives of 180 countries met in Bali, Indonesia from December 3 through 14 of 2007 at the Conference of the Parties (COP), the annual United Nations Conference on climate change. Their goal was to set the groundwork for a new international climate change treaty to go into force and effect in 2013, upon the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. At this meeting, the COP established a two-year process, the so-called Bali Road Map, which is designed to culminate in the enactment of a new treaty by the end of 2009, at or around the annual meeting of the UN conference on climate change in Copenhagen.
The first meetings toward a new accord were held in Bangkok between March 31 and April 4, 2008. Delegates from 162 countries met for the purpose of developing a substantive framework for the Bali Road Map. The participants contemplate work over the next two years toward an international pact that would halt the increase in global emissions within the next ten to fifteen years. The Kyoto Protocol Working Group also met to define the next phase of its work in redefining emissions reduction targets and obtaining commitments from signatory countries.
In the meetings the COP identified five elements or concepts around which the work for a new treaty would be centered; adaptation, mitigation, technology, finance and cooperative action. These will be addressed and molded into treaty provisions in three more working sessions that will take place this year. The Kyoto Protocol Working Group then reaffirmed the use of emissions trading, the Clean Development Mechanism, and joint implementation by developed countries to meet their emissions reductions targets, and, in so doing, sent a clear signal to private businesses in those countries about the criteria to use for their investments and operations going forward.
