BACKGROUND: The commitments of Copenhagen

Nov 24, 2010, 13:05 GMT

Copenhagen - The United Nations climate change summit of December 2009 saw 193 countries 'take note' of the Copenhagen Accord, which contains the following commitments:

TWO-DEGREE GOAL: Emissions of greenhouse gases should be lowered to a level that prevents global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius. The UN's IPCC panel in 2007 said a rise above this temperature could prove catastrophic for humans and nature. The accord contained no targets for how governments could meet this goal.

GREENHOUSE GASES: By January 31, 2010, industrial and developing countries were required to submit national goals for tackling climate change by 2020. A legally-binding target no longer applied to industrial nations, either for 2020 or 2050. Developing country goals were conditioned on getting money and technological know-how from wealthy nations.

FINANCING: Industrial nations pledged to provide 30 billion dollars between 2010 and 2012 to help poorer countries adapt to climate change and grow their economies in a climate-friendly manner. The funds would primarily go to poor and island states.

Rich countries also agreed to scale up their financing to 100 billion dollars per year by 2020, but only if developing nations agreed to a transparent process for evaluating how they use the money.

VERIFICATION: Emerging and developing economies must agree to 'international consultations and analysis' of their climate activities, based on their own 'national priorities.' China thereby avoided having to allow international inspections of its plans.

FORESTS: Countries acknowledged that protecting forests and making money available to prevent deforestation were critical to the wider climate problem. Details, including how financing would work in practice, were left to a later stage.

STRONGER TARGETS: The commitments will be reviewed in 2015, when the next UN IPCC report could find that warming should be limited to just 1.5 degrees. The lower target has been demanded mainly by island nations threatened by the prospect of rising sea levels.

BINDING: Countries agreed simply to 'take note' of the Copenhagen Accord. Efforts to get the accord approved by the entire UN plenary collapsed in the final hours of the summit.