Copenhagen Climate Talks

United Nations Climate Change Conference: December 7 - 18 2009

The consensus of the scientific community is clear: The Earth's climate is changing with significant impacts on the planet's marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems. The United Nations Environment Program recently examined 400 peerreviewed scientific studies and found that current effects of climate change include:

• Widespread and accelerated melting of mountain glaciers in tropical and temperate latitudes, impinging on the livelihoods of more than 1.5 billion people who depend on runoff for freshwater, irrigation and hydropower.
• Ocean acidification that is degrading the health of shellfish—a source of income and food for billions of people—and coral reefs—critical to the economies of many coastal nations and essential for healthy marine ecosystems.
• Altered distribution and behavior of numerous marine, freshwater and terrestrial plants and animals, threatening the very existence of various species.
• Perennial drought conditions that suggest more persistent agricultural difficulty and water scarcity in Southern and Northern Africa, the Mediterranean, much of the Middle East, a broad band in Central Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

The evidence demonstrates that billions of people around the world already feel the effects of climate change, and the best scientific projections suggest that the climate will continue to change in even more profound ways. There is particular concern that the most significant effects of climate change are likely to be felt acutely in developing countries, which collectively have contributed least to the problem and have the most limited capacity to adapt.

These trends help explain why a renewed global strategy for adapting to unavoidable climate changes will be a central issue when the parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change meet in Copenhagen in December.

The following pages include information covering what to expect in Copenhagen, key issues, summaries of current domestic and international actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and upcoming daily updates from the talks.

• COPservations: Daily Copenhagen Update from Pew Staff



• Copenhagen Materials



• Press Materials



• Tell the President: I Want a Global Climate Agreement in Copenhagen