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UN climate change talks to resume in April

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) announced Tuesday that another round of formal climate talks will be held April 9-11 in Bonn, Germany to follow up on the recent UN Climate Change Conference (COP15) in Copenhagen, Denmark. The decision to hold another session was made by the Bureau of the Conference of the Parties during its first meeting this year in Bonn. UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer gave the reasoning for the new session: Following the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, this constitutes a quick return to the negotiations. The decision to intensify the negotiating schedule underlines the commitment by governments to move the negotiations forward towards success in Cancun. This is further strengthened by the number of countries that have written to the secretariat with their country communications since Copenhagen.The UNFCCC has two other negotiation sessions scheduled for this year. A meeting of its subsidiary bodies is planned for the end of May, and the next formal UN Climate Change Conference, COP16, is to be held in Cancun, Mexico at the end of November. While no legally-binding agreement was reached at the conclusion of the COP15 in December, 192 UN member countries agreed to "take note" of a non-binding Copenhagen Accord developed by leaders from the US, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa in an effort to limit the global temperature rise to below 2 degrees Celsius. The Copenhagen Green Climate Fund was also established to assist poor nations in reducing the effects of climate change. The Accord creates Annexes by which countries will pledge to attain national emission reductions by 2020, but the pledges are not binding. Critics of the Copenhagen Accord have said it lacks the enforcement mechanisms needed to ensure compliance, and that it is unlikely to limit global temperature rise to the indicated levels.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on February 24, 2010 (boomark / email).