On the Road to Copenhagen

The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012.  If we are to have a new global agreement in place by the end of 2012 we need to reach agreement by 2009 at the latest to allow time for ratification and implementation.  The next 2 years are therefore critical for global action on climate change.  The critical steps to 2009 are the annual UN conferences on climate change that take place in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007, Poznan, Poland in 2008 and Copenhagen, Denmark, in 2009.

The first critical step was Bali and it is here that we saw an agreement from all countries to begin inclusive and binding negotiations on a post-2012 framework, with a view to completing those negotiations by 2009. At Bali a communiqué developed as a result of this initiative was handed directly to Yvo de Boer, Chair of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, by Elliot Morley, President of GLOBE International.

Business and civil society do not have a seat at the formal UN negotiations.  And yet climate change is an issue that affects us all and, if we are to be successful in combating climate change, we all have a role to play. The Road to Copenhagen initiative was created in response to the need for business and key stakeholders to participate in and influence the process leading up to the post 2012 agreement being adopted.

Road to Copenhagen Initiative
By invitation of EU Commission Vice President Margot Wallström, Club of Madrid, Globe Europe and Respect Table joined forces to create the Road to Copenhagen. The initiative builds upon the Global Leadership for Climate Action project launched in 2007 by the Club of Madrid and the United Nations Foundation and the ongoing work of GLOBE with legislators and Respect Table with the business community.

The aim of Road to Copenhagen is to ensure that business and other key stakeholders have a direct input into the post 2012 agreement process via inputs to the policy process at strategically important times.

From Road To Copenhagen 2009

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