United States: U.N. Talks in Cancun Mark Steps Toward Global Emissions Limitations or Reduction Targets, But Many Issues Remain

The Climate Report - Winter 2011

One year after the Copenhagen Accord, many commentators believe credibility has been restored to international climate change negotiations following the United Nations' annual climate change conference, which ended on December 11, 2010 in Cancun, Mexico. Two texts of agreement (known as the Cancun Agreement) were adopted by representatives of 194 nations at the 16th Conference of the Parties, or "COP 16," to the U.N.'s Framework Convention on Climate Change. The ultimate goal is to arrive at a global climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012.

Despite repeated objections from Bolivia, agreement was reached on a number of individual issues. The parties agreed on an objective that greenhouse gas emissions should peak and that a goal should be set to limit average global temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius (compared to pre-industrial levels). The agreements call for a review of this goal, and a possible tightening, starting in 2013. A goal of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent compared to 1990 levels by 2020 was set, and the need for countries to "raise the level of the emissions reductions" to achieve those goals was recognized. Details as to how this will be achieved were not, however, covered.

The agreements included much-discussed "transparency measures" for developing nations to report their greenhouse gas emissions and to have their actions to curb emissions verified every two years. Many states consider this issue a bedrock element of any new global climate change agreement.

Agreement was also reached on the creation of a legal framework for a Green Fund, which had been agreed to in principle in 2009 at COP 15 in Copenhagen, to raise and disburse $100 billion a year to assist poor countries with low-carbon development and to help the most vulnerable adapt to rising sea levels and other climate impacts. Wealthy nations reiterated their 2009 pledges to provide $30 billion of fast-track financial aid for 2010–12.

The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism ("CDM"), which governs voluntary emission reduction projects in developing countries, will see important changes, including the introduction of standardized baselines for assessing emission reductions, as an alternative to project-by-project assessment. The main objective is to enable the CDM process to produce more carbon credits without unnecessary, and accordingly costly, delay. In addition, the parties agreed to include carbon capture and storage projects in the CDM, provided that certain standards are established, including a future procedure for selecting and monitoring carbon storage sites, mandatory risk and safety assessments, and clear assignment of liability for such sites.

Broad agreement was also reached on creating carbon credits through projects to avoid deforestation under the framework known as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation, or "REDD." Deforestation is believed to account for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

Despite talk of the Cancun Agreement being a new step forward, many key issues remain unresolved, and there was no consensus on how to move the framework of the Kyoto Protocol forward. With nations such as Japan, Canada, and Australia unwilling to commit without specific reduction commitments from the United States and major developing countries, such as China, time is running out to finalize, and then ratify, an agreement for a post-2012 emission reduction commitment period.

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