Copenhagen Accord

Copenhagen Accord. The Copenhagen Accord is a political agreement that emerged from the fractious 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP15) held in Denmark. It was not formally adopted by the Conference of the Parties but was "taken note of," representing a non-binding consensus among a group of major economies including the United States, the People's Republic of China, India, Brazil, and South Africa. The accord aimed to bridge deep divisions between developed and developing nations, setting non-mandatory goals for greenhouse gas mitigation and establishing a framework for financial assistance, though it fell short of the legally binding treaty many had hoped for.

Background and negotiation

The path to the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference was paved by the Bali Road Map agreed at COP13 in 2007, which mandated a two-year negotiation process to culminate in a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Expectations were extraordinarily high, with world leaders like Barack Obama, Hu Jintao, and Gordon Brown attending the summit. However, negotiations were marked by profound discord between blocs such as the European Union, the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), and the G77 plus China group. Key sticking points included the legal form of the agreement, the adequacy of emission reduction targets from Annex I countries, and demands for measurable actions by major emerging economies like China and India. In the final days, a small group of leaders, including Barack Obama, Wen Jiabao, Manmohan Singh, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, engaged in closed-door talks to broker a compromise, bypassing the formal UNFCCC process and leading to significant controversy.

Key provisions

The document outlined several core elements, though in non-binding language. It recognized the scientific view that deep cuts in global emissions were required to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It included a collective commitment by developed countries to provide resources approaching USD 30 billion for the period 2010–2012, and a goal of mobilizing USD 100 billion annually by 2020 from a wide variety of sources to address the needs of developing countries. All major economies, for the first time, were to list national mitigation actions or targets to be communicated to the UNFCCC secretariat, with International consultations and analysis for developing country actions and enhanced reporting for all. It also established the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund as an operating entity of the financial mechanism.

Reception and criticism

Reaction was sharply divided. Many governments, including those of the United States, China, and the European Union, welcomed it as a pragmatic step forward, averting total collapse. However, it was widely criticized by numerous parties, civil society groups, and scientists for its lack of ambition and legal force. Delegates from nations like Venezuela, Sudan, Bolivia, and Tuvalu denounced the closed-door process as undemocratic and a violation of UNFCCC principles. Organizations like Greenpeace and Oxfam labeled it a failure, arguing its voluntary pledges would lead to dangerous warming above 3°C. The accord's "take note" status created significant legal and procedural ambiguity, leaving its relationship to the formal UNFCCC process unclear.

Implementation and follow-up

Following the conference, parties were invited to associate themselves with the document and submit their national pledges. Over 140 countries, representing more than 80% of global emissions, eventually did so. These pledges formed the basis of the first compilation under the UNFCCC of quantified economy-wide emission targets for developed countries and nationally appropriate mitigation actions for developing countries. The accord's financial architecture, particularly the Green Climate Fund, was operationalized in subsequent COPs, such as COP16 in Cancún. However, the accord's inherent weaknesses—its voluntary nature and the "pledge and review" system—directly influenced the design of the later Paris Agreement, which sought to create a more durable, universal, and rules-based framework with enhanced transparency.

Category:Climate change treaties and protocols Category:2009 in Denmark Category:2009 in the environment Category:United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change