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The current version of the Collaboratorium allows users to create plans that outline emission reduction and land use targets of the kind that will be negotiated at the UN climate talks held in Copenhagen during December 2009.
The Copenhagen meeting is the next in a series of negotiations that have occurred as part of the United Nations Framework convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This page provides background information on the Copenhagen talks and the UNFCCC process.
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The UNFCCC is an international treaty negotiated at the United the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Earth Summit, which was held in Rio in June 1992. The treaty's objective is to is stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations levels that will prevent dangerous climate change. A UN Secretariat was subsequently established to adminster the work of the convention.
The original treaty set no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual nations and contained no enforcement provisions. But it did call for updates, to be called protocols, which would set mandatory limites. The primary update is the Kyoto Protocol, negotiated in 1997, which was the first international agreement to set binding emission reduction targets.
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Although the UNFCC holds quarterly gatherings, major annual meetings are the centerprice of the process. The 2008 meeting was held in Poznan, Poland. The 2009 meeting is scheduled for December in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Country Groupings in the UNFCCC: Annex I (Developed) vs. Non-Annex I (Developing) Countries
The countries active in the UNFCC negotiations are divided into two primary groups. Annex 1 and Non-Annex 1 countries.
- [Annex I countries include countries that were |http://unfccc.int/parties_and_observers/parties/annex_i/items/2774.php] include members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and those countries that were formerly part of the Soviet bloc.
The OEDC OECD is a group of 30 leading industrial countries which includes all the nations of Europe, as well as Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, Turkey, and the United States (Mexico became a member of the OECD only after the establishment of the UNFCC process and so is not considered an Annex I country).
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- All other countries are referred to as Non-Annex I Annex I parties.
In the Climate Collaboratorium, the Annex I parties are referred to as "Developed Countries," while the non-Annex I parties are referred to as "Developing Countries."
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- a group of developing countries that have progressed farther in their economic development and contribute a sizeable share of global emissions (the countries typically included in this group are China, India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, and Indonesia);
- a group of developing countries that have low emissions and are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. Members of the latter group include the least developed countries (LDCs) and and small island developing states (SIDS).
The Climate Collaboratorium effectively breaks out the developing countries into these two groups. The former group is called "Rapidly Developing Countries" and the latter is called "Other Developing Countries."
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In 2008, the United States initiated the Major Economies Process on Energy Security and Climate Change, a meeting that brought 17 of the world's largest economies together to "reinforce and accelerate global efforts under the UNFCCC."
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