The prospects for global climate change reform after copenhagen

Abstract

International efforts to contain climate change resulted in the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Legally binding measures to implement the convention were later embodied in the Kyoto Protocol, the first commitment period of which will come to an end in 2012. Negotiations have been underway to establish a long-term and comprehensive cooperative framework. The Copenhagen conference, which was widely and perhaps unjustifiably expected to produce a legally binding long-term and comprehensive cooperative framework, only resulted in a framework political agreement. This chapter reviews the form and substance of the current and emerging global climate change regime.