UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen: A Small Step on a Long Road

Bern, 19.12.2009 - At the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, the Parties took note of a political agreement on Saturday 19 December 2009 that had been reached the previous evening by a group of heads of state and government. In the agreement, the parties acknowledge climate change as one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. They aim to limit climate warming to 2 degrees Celsius. This will require a massive reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Switzerland views this agreement as a step in the right direction which, however, falls short of the objectives set.

A group of heads of state and government agreed on a compromise overnight at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen that will enable the participating states to adopt measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to negotiate further the issues that remain open in the coming months. In the legally non-binding "Copenhagen Accord", the states acknowledge climate change as the greatest challenge facing humanity and demand that both the industrialised and newly industrialised states adopt measures to counteract it. The latter must render their measures transparent vis-à-vis the UN Climate Change Convention. The document was accepted by the Conference of the Parties on Saturday morning following a long and heated debate.

Acknowledgement of the 2 degree objective

In the "Copenhagen Accord", the states express the intention to limit climate warming throughout the world to a maximum of two degrees Celsius. They were unable to agree, however, on the adoption of the objective necessary to achieve this aim, i.e. the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least half by 2050. The document contains a promise by the richer states to provide a total of USD 30 billion in climate-related aid to developing countries until 2012. This sum is to be increased to USD 100 billion per year by 2020. It was also decided to establish a green climate fund.

The "Copenhagen Accord" acknowledges that deforestation and forest degradation are a major source of greenhouse gases. This process is to be halted, inter alia, through the provision of financial incentives.

Based on the "Copenhagen Accord", the industrialised countries have until 1 February 2010 to report the measures they will implement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from 2012 to 2020. This also applies to the USA, which did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Not a legally-binding agreement

The result achieved in Copenhagen is a unilateral undertaking and is not legally binding. This solution had emerged in the run up to the conference, however it does not reflect its original objectives. Two years ago, the international community agreed on an Action Plan in Bali with the aim of, first, passing measures for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and, second, reaching an agreement that would also involve the USA and the newly industrialised states.

The earliest point at which a legally-binding agreement of this kind can now be reached is the 16th United Nations Climate Change Conference at the end of next year in Mexico.

Switzerland is willing to accept the "Copenhagen Accord". It expresses the considerable political will on the part of the major industrialised states to fight climate change. Switzerland regrets the failure to specify, however, the point at which the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will be deemed as having reached a maximum level. It would also have preferred if, in addition to the 2 degree objective, the Accord had specified emissions reduction objectives for 2020 and 2050.


Address for enquiries

Adrian Aeschlimann, Media Relations Officer for the Swiss Negotiation Delegation, tel. +0041 79 277 51 83



Publisher

Federal Department of the Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications
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