Copenhagen Accord on Track

The BASIC Countries (Brazil, South Africa [Afrique du Sud], India and China) reiterated their commitment to a global climate agreement at their meeting in Delhi on Sunday January 24th.  The Ministers issued a joint statement supporting the Copenhagen Accord and their intention to submit their mitigation actions to the UNFCCC by this Sunday January 31, 2010. 

In less then a week we expect that all the major emitters including the United States, BASIC nations, Japan, European nations, Canada, Indonesia and others will have submitted their mitigation actions to be included in the Copenhagen Accord Annexes.   In fact, just Tuesday, Japan formally submitted its commitment of a 25% emissions cut to the UNFCCC Secretariat. Nations also have the opportunity to “associate” with the Accord or become an original co-sponsor, and as time progresses they will have the opportunity to update their commitments, improving the level of ambition.

World leaders  committed to one another and the public world-wide, and we have every reason to expect them to follow through with the Copenhagen Accord.   In the final hours of Copenhagen, the leaders of 28 nations agreed in person to flesh out the Accord by detailing national mitigation actions.    In their unprecedented late night session in Copenhagen the President’s and Prime Ministers also agreed to the critical fast-start funds of 10 billion/year for through 2012.   The BASIC Ministers called for quick action to initiate the flow of these funds to the least developed countries, small island states and vulnerable African nations.  These monies are critical to address the impacts of climate change that are hitting the worlds poorest and most at risk.

On January 20th, the UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer gave an optomistic press briefing about the status of the Accord, calling the Accord a “stepping stone” to a more robust agreement in Mexico.  Despite Mr. de Boer's positive message some reports of his remarks characterized the aggrement as at risk or faltering, but the key milestones for the Accord are already moving along as expected.

• The U.S. will formalize its pledge.
• BASIC nations will lay out their commitments to curb emissions.

Over the next few weeks, we can look forward to the release of the final report of the Copenhagen meeting and a fresh Copenhagen Accord with the key details in the Annex. 

In the months ahead the climate meetings will resume with several negotiating sessions throughout 2010, the first scheduled meeting will likely be held in June 2010.   These sessions will continue the work of negotiating the details of REDD, climate finance and investment, the adaptation framework, and the clean technology mechanism, issues that in many cases were agreed or very close but were not formally adopted as time ran out in Copenhagen.  These items will likely also continue to be addressed in the G20 meetings and other parallel process throughout the year, though many countries have encouraged a focus on the UNFCCC process to promote inclusiveness and transparency in the continued climate talks.

As the Copenhagen Accord process continues to unfold throughout 2010, NRDC will be tracking the Copenhagen mitigation actions and financial commitments on our website.   And we will be in Cancun,Mexico later this year pushing to strengthen the Copenhagen Accord with even stronger international agreements and the domestic actions to achieve those agreements.

Many thanks to Lovelyn Nwarueze      

NRDC's Howard Law Extern who co-authored this article.