November 28- December 9, 2011- Durban, South Africa: UNFCCC COP 17- Climate Change Conference 2011
The Durban conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) ended in Durban after two extra days of negotiations making some modest advances in the international community’s response to climate change.
In Durban, governments decided to adopt a universal legal agreement on climate change as soon as possible, but not later than 2015. Work in this direction will immediately begin under a new ad hoc group called the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action.
Governments, including 35 industrialised countries, also agreed on a second commitment phase of the Kyoto Protocol, from 2013 to 2017, thus confirming the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol’s mechanism and accounting rules. Quantified emission reduction targets from the Parties to this second commitment phase will be submitted for review by May 1, 2012. In addition, governments in Durban agreed on the full implementation of the package to support developing nations, approved last year in Cancun, Mexico, that includes: the Green Climate Fund, an Adaptation Committee designed to improve the coordination of adaptation actions on a global scale, and a Technology Mechanism, which are to become fully operational in 2012. Given the ambition of the 2° target, Governments agreed that the UN Climate Change process shall push action and be led by climate science, following recommendations from the forthcoming IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report and the global Review, 2013-2015.
Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei