UN Climate Change Conferences

The next COP will take place in mid-2021 in Glasgow, United Kingdom (postponement due to Corona virus). Until then, nation states shall present their new or updated NDCs. In Madrid at COP25, already 120 countries joined the “Climate Ambition Coalition” and announced to achieve climate neutrality or net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Moreover, 80 states pledged to upward revise their NDCs.

The Spanish capital Madrid hosts COP25 in 2019. The focus of negotiations is on several points, on which countries could not find a compromise yet in Katowice one year before. These include the so-called market and cooperation mechanisms: The collaboration of nation states shall facilitate climate action and make efforts more efficient. However, this requires rules. For instance, it should not happen that both cooperating countries count the emission cuts towards their respective NDC. However, delegates were unable to resolve the issue and had to adjourn the negotiations.

Moreover, unavoidable losses and damages due to climate change are coming to the fore. For example, people can only adapt to sea level rise up to a certain point. Although the Paris Agreement explicitly excludes any liabilities or compensations, developing countries demand financial means to deal with climate-related losses and damages at COP25.

Even though the Paris Agreement enters into force already in November 2016, it takes until COP24 in Katowice, Poland, in 2018 for the Parties to agree upon most of the details to give effect to the Paris Agreement. Common and consistent reporting requirements and transparency provisions now apply to all countries; only developing countries with low capacities obtain a certain degree of flexibility with respect to the guidelines. This way, efforts for climate protection, adaptation and climate finance shall become more transparent and comparable.

In addition, Parties conclude the Talanoa Dialogue, which the Fijian Presidency initiated one year ahead at COP23. The Talanoa Dialogue constitutes a first stocktake of collective climate efforts since adoption of the Paris Agreement and is supposed to help countries in revising and updating their NDCs. In the future, such a stocktaking event will take place every five years, which shall contribute together with the regularly adjusted NDCs to a continuous increase of collective climate ambition.

The French capital Paris hosts the largest diplomatic meeting in world history in 2015, the COP21 of the UNFCCC. For the first time, national representatives succeed in adopting a legally binding climate accord that applies to all countries. According to the Paris Agreement, the international community strives to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius and to pursue efforts to reach even 1.5 degrees Celsius. For this purpose, Parties aim to achieve a balance between emissions and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases.

However, countries determine themselves as part of their nationally determined contributions (NDCs) what they add to global efforts on climate action. Legally binding objectives for individual countries are not part of the agreement. In addition, delegates postpone the clarifications of details to later conferences. Baden-Württemberg supports reaching the Paris Agreement and establishes together with California the subnational climate leadership alliance Under2 Coalition.

Another year later in 2012, nation states agree at COP18 in Doha, Qatar, as part of the so-called Doha Amendment upon a second commitment period (Kyoto II), which will last from 2013 until 2020. This extension is rather symbolic, because it encompasses only 15 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions at the time. The United States of America never joined the Kyoto Protocol and Canada withdrew in the same year. Additionally, Japan, New Zealand and Russia refuse to enter into any new commitment. Per se, the Kyoto Protocol does not include any obligations for developing countries and emerging economies. As things stand today, the Doha Amendment has still not entered into force yet.

At COP17 in Durban, South Africa, the global community decides in 2011 to make another attempt to reach an international, legally binding climate agreement. This treaty shall apply to all Parties to the UNFCCC. For this purpose, the delegates establish the “Ad hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action” to broker a deal.

One year later in 2010, Parties officially adopt the Copenhagen Accords at COP16 in Cancun, Mexico, with the so-called “Cancun Agreements”. In addition, they set the course for a bottom-up strategy: Prospectively, nation states shall communicate themselves what they can contribute to international climate action. Setting targets in a top-down fashion through tough negotiations shall no longer prevail – in that case, concerned and unwilling nation states can anyway object and veto.

COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009 shall bring about success: Parties shall adopt a new agreement under the UNFCCC, which is supposed to take effect after expiration of the Kyoto Protocol. However, the negotiations prove very difficult and arduous; the whole conference is on the brink of collapse. In order to prevent complete failure, countries at least take note of a political accord. This accord is without any commitment, but it acknowledges the target to hold global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. Moreover, industrialised countries pledge to provide at least 100 billion US-Dollar climate finance per year by 2020 and the Parties establish the Green Climate Fund.

Ten years after the conference in Tokyo, national delegates debate at COP13 in Bali, Indonesia, in 2007 about the further procedure. They establish two negotiation tracks: The first track focuses on the continued obligations for industrialised countries. The second track centres around “long-term cooperation” which includes potential contributions from developing countries and emerging economies. Baden-Württemberg supports the negotiation positions of Germany and the European Union to enshrine legally binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for all countries in a new agreement.

In 1997, Parties conclude the negotiations under the “Berlin Mandate” at COP3 in Kyoto, Japan: The so-called “Kyoto Protocol” obliges industrialised countries to cut down their greenhouse gas emissions. From 2008 to 2012, these countries shall reduce their emissions by 5.2 percent compared to 1990. However, the United States of America never join the Kyoto Protocol because developing countries are free of any restrictions. Only in 2005, the Kyoto Protocol enters into force, after enough industrialised countries have ratified the international agreement to satisfy the trigger.

After the entry into force of the UNFCCC, the first Conference of the Parties (COP1) takes place in Berlin, Germany, in 1995. As Parties are not able to agree upon a different procedure, the consent principle applies to the negotiation according to the terms of reference. Moreover, negotiations under the so-called “Berlin Mandate” start to agree upon a Protocol in order to be able to achieve the objectives of the UNFCCC.