As of: December 2009

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen - 7 to 18 December 2009

15th session of the Conference of the Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change and 5th meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol

A new international post-2012 climate agreement is to be adopted at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen. The aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to such an extent that global warming can be restricted to less than 2 degrees Celsius compared to preindustrial levels. The eight leading industrialised countries (G8) and the countries with the highest greenhouse gas emissions (Major Economies Forum) agreed on this target at their meeting in L'Aquila in July 2009. [ The road to Copenhagen]

Time is pressing: in the first place, the latest climate research findings clearly show that if global temperature rises by more than 2 degrees Celsius climate change will be almost unmanageable. Secondly, 2012 marks the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, under which various industrialised countries - but not the US, newly industrialising or developing countries - pledged to reduce their greenhouse gases. [ Scientific background]

Our goals for Copenhagen

The German Government has set itself the target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels. Germany is thus taking on a pioneering role in climate protection and will put this to active use in Copenhagen. Like the EU, Germany supports the conclusion of an ambitious and legally binding climate agreement. International climate protection efforts can only be effective and credible within the context of an internationally binding agreement.

Nevertheless, the time remaining until Copenhagen is unlikely to be sufficient for negotiating all the details of a comprehensive legal text. Therefore, in Copenhagen we must at least reach a binding political decision on all the key points of a new climate agreement. These include laying down ambitious emission reductions for industrialised and developing countries, concrete commitments regarding financial support for developing countries and a robust and transparent system for implementing and reviewing the agreement. These decisions must then be converted into a legal agreement in the first half of 2010. [ The negotiating position of the EU in Copenhagen]

Read more

• The road to Copenhagen
• Scientific background
• The negotiating position of the EU in Copenhagen