The Cancun Conundrum: The Role of the UNFCCC in a Post-Copenhagen World

In contrast to the buildup to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’s conference in Copenhagen last year, interest in this year’s meeting in Cancun comes across as strikingly absent.  Expectations are low, delegates are exhausted, and the world appears disengaged with the entire UN climate change negotiating process.  Most experts agree that achieving a legally binding agreement on emission targets, the goal of the Bali Action Plan of last year’s conference, is as far away a goal today as it was in the days following the failure at Copenhagen.  However, the conference’s low-profile could work to the meeting’s advantage and possibly produce some definitive agreements, particularly on forests, technology transfer, and funding commitments for developing countries.  The most recent rounds of negotiations also indicate that Cancun and the future work of the UNFCCC may be a forum able to produce a series of important agreements, albeit of more limited scope, rather than an all encompassing Kyoto-type framework.

UNFCCC Work Leading up to Cancun

Much of the recent work in the UNFCCC reflects changes within the convention since establishing the Kyoto Protocol 13 years ago.  While renewed (and more ambitious) targets remain core to delegate discussions, the Bali Action Plan (BAP) set in motion several committees aiming to lay the groundwork for a broader negotiated agreement at COP 15 in Copenhagen.  The Copenhagen Accord touches on many of the issues discussed in the BAP committees; however, many delegates felt the process that established the document undermined the goals of the conference such that the UNFCCC only officially “took note” of the agreement. 

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