Two years of tense negotiations on climate change are coming to an end next week in Copenhagen. Twelve years after similar talks produced the flawed 1997 Kyoto protocol, and two decades after international efforts to tackle climate change started, governments are at last preparing to draw up a global framework on greenhouse gases.
If a deal can be signed at Copenhagen – and whether one can remains an open question – then the world will, for the first time, have a truly global agreement to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Such reductions are urgently needed, say scientists, to avoid the dangerous effects of climate change.
A meaningful deal would have four elements, says Yvo de Boer, the United Nations' top official on climate change and the man charged with bringing the conference to a successful conclusion. They are: developed countries must set targets for making deep cuts in their emissions by 2020; developing countries must agree to take measures to curb the growth of their emissions; rich countries must provide financial assistance to poor countries; and governance structures must be outlined that would deliver the above.