International negotiations

Climate change – already a reality for millions around the world - is a critical, global challenge for the 21st century. Avoiding dangerous climate change is essential for global security, prosperity and equity.

That’s why an international agreement - combined with robust domestic action - is so important. A strong domestic position will help ensure that a country comes to the international table with something to offer.

At the Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations in January 2011, Australian and British Ministers agreed on the need for strong domestic action to tackle climate change. The Communiqué states that:

“Action on climate change is urgent and cannot wait for the signature of an international treaty. The governments of Australia and the UK are therefore committed to promoting swift action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions both at home and abroad.”

International negotiations on climate change are conducted under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).  UN negotiations are considered to be the most inclusive and legitimate fora for reaching agreement, with 194 countries participating in them. Environmental groups, business, local government and indigenous peoples organisations can all participate as observers.  

Countries that have ratified the UNFCCC - so-called ‘Parties’ to the convention - meet every year at the Conference of the Parties (COP) to negotiate global climate change agreements. The first COP was held in 1995, and the most recent, COP16, was held in Cancun, Mexico, in 2010. The high-profile Copenhagen negotiations, COP15, were held in December 2009.

Find out more about what happened at COP16 in Cancun and what happened at COP15 in Copenhagen. 

The Kyoto Protocol is the current legal agreement, under the UNFCCC, for tackling global climate change. It was agreed in 1997 at COP3. The current commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol is due to expire in 2012.

The UK negotiates at the UNFCCC as part of the European Union. The EU bloc of 27 member states agree common negotiating positions ahead of meetings.

Cancun Negotiations

The UNFCCC COP16 conference took place in Cancun, Mexico on 29 November - 10 December 2010.  Prime Minister David Cameron hailed the talks as a "very significant step forward in renewing the determination of the international community to tackle climate change through multilateral action."

Key outcomes from the Conference included:

• Agreement to limit global temperature increases to no more than 2 degrees.
• Bringing details of what developed and developing countries are doing to tackle climate change, promised in Copenhagen, into the UN system so they can be assessed.
• Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV): a system was agreed so that we know how countries are living up to their promises to take action on emissions.
• Long-term finance: A Green Climate Fund was established to help developing countries go low carbon and adapt to climate impacts.
• It was agreed to slow, halt and reverse deforestation, with rules for how this will be done and for monitoring progress.
• Mechanisms were established to help developing countries access low carbon technology, and adapt to climate change.
  

In his statement to Parliament on the outcomes of Cancun, Chris Huhne, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change reflected:

"I am delighted to say that our expectations were not just met, but exceeded. The conference agreed a series of linked decisions under both its tracks: the Kyoto Protocol, and the framework for reaching a new and more comprehensive agreement. Emissions reduction pledges made under the Copenhagen Accord, by both developed and developing countries, provided a valuable starting point and have been brought into the UN climate convention framework."

COP17 will be held in late 2011 in Durban, South Africa 

Australia and UK working together

As well as working through the formal UNFCCC mechanisms, the UK and Australia are taking action on international climate change through fora such as the G20, Major Economies Forum (MEF) as well as through bilateral outreach and engagement to help build consensus on key issues and demonstrate concrete action.  

At the Australia-UK Ministerial Consultations in January 2011, Foreign Ministers from each country agreed that an effective response to climate change underpins our long-term security as well as our prosperity, and that a response to the climate challenge must include domestic and international action.

Both Australia and the UK are active members of the "Cartagena Dialogue for Progressive Action". The Cartagena Dialogue is a group of developed and developing countries from different regions and from different negotiating blocs which are committed to achieving a ambitious, comprehensive and legally binding deal under the UNFCCC.

Will international targets secure a 2 degree deal?

The UK strongly supports the goal of a limiting climate change to no more than 2 degrees Celsius. This 2 degree limit was agreed in Copenhagen and reaffirmed in Cancun.

In order to stay within this 2 degree limit, all countries around the world will have to play their part.

The UK is obliged, under the UK Climate Change Act, to decrease domestic emissions by 34% by 2020. In international negotiations, the UK negotiates as part of the EU, which has pledged to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020 or by 30% if two conditions are met: that other industrialised nations commit to making comparable cuts, and that the more advanced developing countries agree to make an adequate contribution to the global effort. Australia has pledged to reduce emissions unconditionally by 5% or, contingent on the nature of the global agreement, up to 15 or 25%. 

And yet, the sum of all countries’ pledges may not be enough to achieve the 2 degree target. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) highlighted in a pre-Cancun report that there is a gap of 5 GtCO₂e (gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent) between current emissions pledges and a 2 degree increase in global temperatures. The prominent group of scientists conducting the research found that gap could be filled, but only if countries realise their highest ambition and ensure ‘strict’ rules from the negotiations. Find out more about the report’s findings. 

In the lead up to COP17 in South Africa, the UK will be working hard with international partners, including Australia, as well as taking domestic action, in order to help make progress towards a global climate agreement.  

Climate Finance

An important element in an international agreement on climate change will be to ensure that poorer countries have access to funds to help their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to adapt to the changing climate.  The UK is providing £2.9 million in “Fast Start” funding in the budget cycle 2011 to 2015.  Track how countries are pledging their "fast start" international climate finance at the fast start finance website. 

For the longer term, the Copenhagen Conference set the goal of developed countries mobilisng $100 billion a year by 2020 of public and private finance to assist poorer countries with the climate challenge.  The UN Secretary General’s Advisory Group on Climate Finance (AGF) has shown that this goal is achievable.

Related links

The international climate change area of the UK Department of Energy and Climate Change.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN body though which climate negotiations are progressed.

The EU’s web pages on the Cancun climate talks. 

Track how countries are pledging their "fast start" finance at www.faststartfinance.org

The Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was unprecedented for a UN conference, in terms of both its size and the scope of its concerns.  The UNFCCC was one of the resulting documents from this vital summit.