The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 15 Conference of Parties (COP 15) came to its conclusion after an all-night session that sent two weeks of climate talks into overtime.
The result was the tentative approval of a non-biding, three-page political statement hashed out between the leaders of Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, South Africa, the UK and the USA. Known as the Copenhagen Accord, it calls for action to hold mean warming of the Earth’s surface to no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels although it does not define the actions needed to achieve that goal.
It was hoped that the 113 attending world leaders would submit a draft text with no more than two or three issues outstanding – but 200 remained by Friday prompting heads of state to rush through an abbreviated document to minimise the sticking points. With President Barack Obama needing to fly back to the USA ahead of a heavy snowstorm, key statements were rapidly deleted from the document including an agreement among developed countries to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent compared to 1990 levels, by the year 2050. According to The Observer, China was they key objector to the numbers and may have been looking to future negotiations when it is likely to be categorised as a developed country rather than a developing country. Another key point lost was a stipulation that the principles of the accord be turned into a treaty at some point in the future.
Going into the negotiations there were five key goals: that developed countries agree on short-term emission targets; an agreement for emerging economies and whether they should set emission targets; finance structures to be created and funded by developed countries encouraging developing countries to minimise future emissions; the value of potential emission offsets; and that all agreements be legally binding pending independent verification.
However, the talks were shaped by two additional issues – the emergence of a draft cancelling the commitments of the last two years of the Kyoto Protocol; and the initial rejection of the 2°C maximal warming limit.
The Copenhagen Accord has failed to deliver progress on many of the major issues but it has at least committed agreeing parties to a January 31, 2010, deadline by which they must submit national emission reduction goals. For developed countries, reduction targets and reference years must be provided; while for developing countries, actions to reduce emissions must be outlined although they do have to be quantified. The Accord also outlines the financing of climate mitigation – expected to approach $30billion in the 2010-2012 period and scaling up to $100billion a year by 2020.
