About the Report
Global climate policy has advanced on several fronts
over the past few years and this report deals with two
developments of particular importance – The readiness
of countries to pledge to new emission reductions, and
the agreement among countries to an important global
climate target. In December, 2009, countries were
encouraged to submit pledges for reducing greenhouse
gas emissions for the year 2020 as part of the Copenhagen
Accord. Subsequently, 42 industrialized countries and 44
developing countries submitted pledges. At the climate
conference in Cancún one year later, parties formally
recognised country pledges and decided “to hold the
increase in global average temperature below 2°C above
pre-industrial levels”. They also left open the option for
“strengthening the long-term global goal on the basis of
best available scientific knowledge including in relation to
a global average temperature rise of 1.5°C”. An obvious
and basic question is, to what extent will the country
pledges help to meet the 2°C and 1.5°C targets?
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