International Campaigns

A Guide to the Latest United Nations Climate Negotiations

The fifteenth United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties (COP) will take place this year in Copenhagen, Denmark, from December 7th to 18th. This meeting is significant because parties have been tasked with producing a new agreement in Copenhagen that will limit global greenhouse gas emissions when Kyoto commitments end in 2012. To avoid a gap between Kyoto emission reduction commitments and a new agreement, consensus on a new accord is absolutely necessary this year in Copenhagen. Roughly 15,000 attendees are expected at the Copenhagen COP, including government negotiating teams, media, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Visit Pew's Copenhagen section for more information.

BACKGROUND

In December 2008, representatives from around the world met in Poznan, Poland, to continue negotiating a new global climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. The Poznan climate talks marked the midpoint of a two year process which began in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 and is set to culminate in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009 with a new global agreement to limit greenhouse gases. The negotiating process takes place under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or Framework Convention), which the United States ratified in 1992.

On May 5, 2009, the United States submitted a proposal to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The proposal is an outline of what the U. S. would like to see included in the final Copenhagen agreement to be reached in December of 2009. The document provides varying levels of detail on the issues of mitigation, adaptation, technology, financing, and reducing emissions from deforestation degradation (REDD-plus). The U.S. negotiating team has indicated that greater depth and substance will be included in later submissions. Read the document from the UNFCCC (PDF).

The Poznan Talks

The fourteenth Conference of the Parties (COP-14) met its primary goal in Poznan: to outline an ambitious schedule of meetings for 2009 leading up to Copenhagen, in order to agree on a global emissions pact to take effect in 2012. The conference also took a small step forward in two areas. The Adaptation Fund Board was operationalized, although efforts to agree on a proposal to increase available funding for adaptation projects failed. The meeting also produced a tentative decision to include Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) as a key part of the Copenhagen emissions reduction agreement.

Several other issues in the negotiations did not produce any new conclusions, but provided an interesting window into the dynamics that will shape the negotiations next year. Many of those discussions took place among parties to the Kyoto Protocol (which does not include the U.S.), but will soon be brought into the broader negotiations.

Read more about the Poznan Talks

The Bali Action Plan

The Bali conference launched formal negotiations on a new, post-2012 international global warming agreement and set a firm deadline for its adoption in December 2009. The outline of those negotiations is contained in the Bali Action Plan,¹ approved in a dramatic conclusion to the talks on December 15, 2007.

One of the most important developments in Bali was that developing countries were willing to discuss emission reductions of their own. The Bali Action Plan opens discussion on “measurable, verifiable and reportable” emission reduction actions that may be undertaken by developing countries. In contrast, the United States delegation led by the previous Bush Administration maintained its long-held rejection of binding numerical commitments for emission reduction targets.

In exchange for their willingness to consider making reduction commitments, the developing countries wanted assurance from developed nations that they would be provided with assistance in acquiring cleaner technologies. On the final day of the conference, India proposed that the same language used to describe mitigation actions, “measurable, verifiable and reportable,” also be applied to technology transfer and financing assistance from developed countries. The meeting almost ended without an agreement to launch negotiations when the U.S. stood to oppose this concession. However, when other key industrialized nations, including Canada, Japan, and Australia (which ratified the Kyoto Protocol on the second day of the talks) refused to join the U.S. position, it was faced with the possibility of being solely responsible for the breakdown of the negotiations. The U.S. withdrew its opposition and the language was adopted.