Copenhagen Accord: a step in right direction, but insufficient

21 December 2009, Copenhagen (Denmark). World leaders in Copenhagen have taken a first and useful step to slow the course of climate change – a threat that is already affecting people, ecosystems and biodiversity in many parts of the world. A global, legally-binding climate change treaty must be the next step.

Although the Copenhagen Accord goes some way to address some of the critical issues that have been on negotiators’ agenda for the past two years, such as a financing package of US$ 100 billion per year by 2020 to assist developing countries to adapt to climate change and to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases, others remained unsolved. There was no agreement on a long term global mitigation target of 50% by 2050 to avoid dangerous climate change, and no agreement that global emissions should peak by 2015-2020. Both are, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, necessary to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations at 450ppm and to avoid global temperature rises of more than 2⁰C above pre-industrial levels.

“IUCN urges all countries to build on the Copenhagen Agreement and to find the common ground necessary to deliver an equitable, comprehensive and legally-binding agreement by the end of 2010,” says IUCN’s Director General Julia Marton-Lefèvre.

IUCN welcomes the fact that the UNFCCC process is on course to continue the work that has been ongoing since Bali in 2007 on a number of important issues. Positive movement has been achieved on issues such as REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation). Such momentum must be carried forward.

• Read the full article on IUCN website