The United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark, between December 7 and December 18, 2009. The conference includes the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 5th Meeting of the Parties (COP/MOP 5) to the Kyoto Protocol as well as meetings of other working groups and subsidiary bodies. COP 15 is the supreme body of the Convention. It currently meets once a year to review the Convention’s progress.

The sessions (COP 15) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change are open to Parties of the Convention and Observer States (Governments), the United Nations System and observer organizations (IGOs and NGOs) duly admitted by the Conference of the Parties.

UNFCCC’s Overview Schedule of COP15 could be found here and the link to the Side Events at COP15 could be found here.

The European Union is working for an ambitious, comprehensive and legally binding global climate agreement that will prevent global warming reaching dangerous levels, that is, more than 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures, as researchers have projected for this century.

The EU has independently committed itself to reducing its emissions by at least 20 per cent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, and is now implementing this reduction with the help of a legislation package that entered into force earlier this year, along with a comprehensive programme for increased energy efficiency.

What is expected to happen politically in Copenhagen?

Parties agreed at Bali in 2007 to jointly step up international efforts to combat climate change and get to an agreed outcome in Copenhagen in 2009. Thus, an ambitious climate change deal will be clinched to follow on the first phase of the UN’s Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. The Copenhagen agreed outcome need not resolve all details, but it must provide clarity on four key issues:

–   Ambitious emission reduction targets for developed countries
–   Nationally appropriate mitigation actions of developing countries
–   Scaling up financial and technological support for both adaptation and mitigation
–   An effective institutional framework with governance structures that address the needs of developing countries

Copenhagen is to result both in a post-2012 outcome as well as important decisions and start-up finance to immediately kick-start action on climate change in 2010.

You could find more information about the event and its background on the following websites: http://en.cop15.dk/ and http://unfccc.int/