WWF - Climate - The Copenhagen Accord

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Climate

The Copenhagen Accord

Source: U.S. Embassy in Denmark

From December 7-18, 2009, the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP-15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) occurred in Copenhagen, Denmark. A contingent of staff from WWF-US joined representatives from 192 countries gathering in Copenhagen in an effort to negotiate an ambitious global agreement aimed to help to protect the planet from the worst effects of climate change.

During these two weeks WWF staff, other non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and state negotiators worked day and night toward an agreement to curb climate emissions. In the final days of negotiations, major progress was made on financing for developing countries to tackle climate change. On the final day of the summit, an agreement spearheaded by President Obama was reached—the Copenhagen Accord.

While the Accord did not produce a legally binding agreement or set emission limits that will prevent a 2°C rise in temperature above pre-industrial levels (widely accepted by scientists as the temperature boundary the planet should not surpass), it did generate agreement on three essential components crucial for reducing climate pollution and moving the world closer toward solving the crisis.

The agreement captured commitments of key countries for reducing climate pollution, generating clear evidence that all major economies are acting to reduce emissions, including the U.S., China, India and Brazil.
Transparency agreement on emission reductions: Developing countries agreed to meet clearly defined guidelines for measuring, reporting and verifying emission reduction actions.
New and additional financial resources (approaching $30 billion for the period 2010-12 and $100 billion annually by 2020) were pledged from developed countries to developing countries for tackling climate change.

The Copenhagen Accord also has major implications for U.S. climate legislation, providing two crucial ingredients needed to convince Senators to pass climate legislation:

At the Conclusion of the Copenhagen summit, WWF President and CEO, Carter Roberts gave the following closing remarks

“President Obama announced an agreement that will capture commitments of key countries and achieves agreement on transparency with China - a key contentious issue that has now been solved.”

“As the President acknowledged, there still remains a huge gap between what we need to do to solve climate change and the commitments on the table. We need the US to reduce emissions further, and to challenge others to do the same. The next step is to take these announcements and give them life, by passing climate legislation at home, and do so with the urgency that this crisis demands.”

For more information on President Obama’s remarks, the Copenhagen Accord, events or WWF’s thoughts throughout the conference, see the following blog posts.