Cancun Agreements
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, October 28, 2011 Adjust font size:
The Cancun Agreements: Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention
The Cancun Agreements: Outcome of the work of the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol at its fifteenth session
The Cancun Agreements: Land use, land-use change and forestry
The Cancun Agreements are a set of significant decisions by the international community to address the long-term challenge of climate change collectively and comprehensively over time and to take concrete action now to speed up the global response.
The agreements, reached on December 11 in Cancun, Mexico, at the 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference represent key steps forward in capturing plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to help developing nations protect themselves from climate impacts and build their own sustainable futures.
« main objectives of the agreements
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establish clear objectives for reducing human-generated greenhouse gas emissions over time to keep the global average temperature rise below two degrees
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encourage the participation of all countries in reducing these emissions, in accordance with each country’s different responsibilities and capabilities to do so
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ensure the international transparency of the actions which are taken by countries and ensure that global progress towards the long-term goal is reviewed in a timely way
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mobilize the development and transfer of clean technology to boost efforts to address climate change, getting it to the right place at the right time and for the best effect
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mobilize and provide scaled-up funds in the short and long term to enable developing countries to take greater and effective action
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assist the particularly vulnerable people in the world to adapt to the inevitable impacts of climate change
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protect the world’s forests, which are a major repository of carbon
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build up global capacity, especially in developing countries, to meet the overall challenge
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establish effective institutions and systems which will ensure these objectives are implemented successfull
« significance of the key agreements reached at Cancun
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they form the basis for the largest collective effort the world has ever seen to reduce emissions, in a mutually accountable way, with national plans captured formally at international level under the banner of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
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they include the most comprehensive package ever agreed by Governments to help developing nations deal with climate change. This encompasses finance, technology and capacity-building support to help them meet urgent needs to adapt to climate change and to speed up their plans to adopt sustainable paths to low emission economies which can also resist the negative impacts of climate change.
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they include a timely schedule for nations under the Climate Change Convention to review the progress they make towards their expressed objective of keeping the average global temperature rise below two degrees Celsius. This includes an agreement to review whether the objective needs to be strengthened in future, on the basis of the best scientific knowledge available.
