Introduction

The current version of the Collaboratorium allows users to create plans that outline emission reduction and land use targets of the kind that will be negotiated at the UN climate talks held in Copenhagen during December 2009.

The Copenhagen meeting is the next in a series of negotiations that have occurred as part of the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This page provides background information on the Copenhagen talks and the UNFCCC process.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)

The UNFCCC is an international treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit, which was held in Rio in June 1992. The treaty's objective was to stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations levels that would prevent dangerous climate change. A UN Secretariat was subsequently established to adminster the work of the convention.

The original treaty set no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual nations and contained no enforcement provisions. But it did call for updates, to be called protocols, which would set mandatory limites. The primary update is the Kyoto Protocol, negotiated in 1997, which was the first international agreement to set binding emission reduction targets.

Since Kyoto, the UNFCCC has continued to meet, in an effort to reach further agreement on binding targets in two key areas:

• reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,
• reductions in emissions from land use; the objective here is to agree on targets for reductions in deforestation (the process of converting forests for uses such as agriculture, logging, and housing) and increases in aforestation (the process of establishing a forest on land that is not currently a forest or has not been one for a long time).

The negotiations center around defining targets for two groups of countries: the developed and the developing economies (see below for more detail on these groupings).

Targets are typically focused on dates in the first half of the 21st century, for example, 2020 or 2030 or 2050.

Although the UNFCC holds quarterly gatherings, major annual meetings are the centerprice of the process. The 2008 meeting was held in Poznan, Poland. The 2009 meeting is scheduled for December in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Country Groupings in the UNFCCC: Annex I (Developed) vs. Non-Annex I (Developing) Countries

The countries active in the UNFCC negotiations are divided into two primary groups.  Annex 1 and Non-Annex 1 countries. 

• [Annex I countries|http://unfccc.int/parties_and_observers/parties/annex_i/items/2774.php] include members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and countries that were formerly part of the Soviet bloc.

The OECD is a group of 30 leading industrial countries which includes all the nations of Europe, as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United States (Mexico became a member of the OECD only after the establishment of the UNFCC process and so is not considered an Annex I country).

In the UNFCC process, the former members of the Soviet bloc are sometimes referred to as countries with economics in transition or the EIT parties.

• All other countries are referred to as Non-Annex I parties.

In the Climate Collaboratorium, the Annex I parties are referred to as "Developed Countries," while the non-Annex I parties are referred to as "Developing Countries."

Some parties to the negotiations have recently proposed separating out two additional groups from among the Non-Annex I countries:

• a group of developing countries that have progressed farther in their economic development and contribute a sizeable share of global emissions (the countries typically included in this group are China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Indonesia);
• a group of developing countries that have low emissions and are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Members of the latter group include the least developed countries (LDCs) and small island developing states (SIDS).

The Climate Collaboratorium effectively breaks out the developing countries into these two groups. The former group is called "Rapidly Developing Countries" and the latter is called "Other Developing Countries."

The OECD Annex I countries are also included in another category, Annex II parties. In addition to reducing their own emissions, Annex II parties are also expected to provide financial resources and to transfer technologies that can assist developing countries in reducing their emissions and adapting to climate change.

Major Economies Process: An Adjunct to the UNFCCC

In 2008, the United States initiated the Major Economies Process on Energy Security and Climate Change, a meeting that brought 17 of the world's largest economies together to "reinforce and accelerate global efforts under the UNFCCC."

The first gathering of this group was held in July 2008 in conjuction with the meeting of the G8. The intention was that these meetings would continue on an ongoing basis. Attending were:

• Members of the G8 (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom, and United States) plus the European Union,
• 8 other leading economies (Australia, Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, and South Africa).

Some observers believe that the Major Economies Process will emerge as a key adjunct to the UN process, the forum where the leading emitters work out a framework that can then be presented to the larger international community in the UNFCCC meetings.