The 20th session of the Conference of the Parties ("COP") of
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change ("UNFCCC") and the 10th session of the COP
serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol
("CMP") took place in Lima, Peru, in December 2014.
Signed in 1992, the UNFCCC sets the goal of preventing dangerous
man-made interference with the global climate system.
In 1997, to better fight the effects of climate change, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted to legally bind
developed countries to emission reduction targets. The last
commitment period of the Protocol will expire in 2020, thus
creating the need for a new agreement.
The 194 countries attending the Lima COP/CMP have reached
decisions that provide for the foundation of a new climate change
framework. They have agreed on two initiatives: the Lima Call for Climate Action and the
draft elements for the new agreement to be adopted.
The Lima Call for Climate Action requires all countries to
describe their proposed emissions reduction targets in a clear,
transparent, and understandable way, in order to assess whether
these contributions are fair and ambitious. The UNFCCC secretariat
will publish the contributions and prepare a synthesis report. The
European Union declared its willingness to assist in this process
and engage in constructive discussions with other countries about
their proposed targets.
In Lima, parties have also begun compiling the draft elements of
the new agreement, intended to be adopted during the 21st COP/CMP,
which will take place in Paris in winter 2015. This agreement aims
to merge all binding and nonbinding arrangements under the UNFCCC
and to build a single comprehensive regime in the form of a new
protocol, thus replacing the Kyoto Protocol. This regime will be
binding on all parties to the UNFCCC, including certain developing
countries.
The expectations surrounding the 21st COP/CMP are, therefore, very
high, since the new agreement will provide for the climate action
legal framework from 2020 onward.
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