Sustainability and policy - Climate Change: Biological and Human Aspects - page 458

at the abovementioned G8 summit earlier that year that they could not at that time
join the Protocol). These talks with non-Kyoto nations enabled non-Kyoto countries
to participate in climate-related policy discussion and keep the door open for them to
potentially join the Kyoto nations later.
A pessimistic perspective might be that the 2005 Montreal meeting achieved little,
with no clear decision for further cuts in greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2012.
Optimistically it did commit to future discussions that could potentially lead to
ecologically meaningful cuts in greenhouse gases.
In 2007 the IPCC published their fourth assessment (AR4; IPCC, 2007a, 2007b,
2007c, 2007d). See section 5.3.1.
8.1.11 Therun-uptoKyotoII(2008-2011)
The 13th UN FCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting was held in Bali,
Indonesia in 2007. It concluded with the Bali Roadmap, or Bali Action Plan, as a
basis for how future negotiations could progress.
The 14th COP meeting was held in Pozna n, Poland in 2008. There was an agreement
of principles (only) of funding to help less wealthy nations adapt to climate change
and transfer to a low-fossil carbon economy.
Given the lack of real progress in 2007 and 2008, it was hoped that the COP 15 UN
climate summit meeting at Copenhagen in December 2009 would see considerable
developments, especially as the Kyoto Protocol agreement was due to end in 2012.
US President Barack Obama replaced President George W. Bush at the beginning
of 2009 and Obama professed concern over anthropogenic climate change, unlike
George Bush Jnr who for much of his presidency did not accept that humans were
responsible for changing the global climate. Indeed, Barack Obama actually attended
the Copenhagen COP meeting and helped broker an accord (the Copenhagen Accord)
with major greenhouse gas emitters and leading emerging countries. It included a
recognition of the need to limit temperature rises to less than 2 ◦ C and promises
to deliver US$30 billion of aid for developing nations over the next 3 years. The
agreement outlined a goal of providing $100 billion a year by 2020 to help poor
countries cope with the impacts of climate change. It also includes a method for
verifying industrialised nations' reduction of emissions. However, the Accord was
not adopted by the 193-nation conference (as it was considered an external document)
but delegates did formally agree to take note of it. Finally, it should be appreciated
that the measures that had been proposed earlier in Copenhagen, but which failed
to make it into the Accord, were not enough to prevent 2 ◦ C warming. The best that
could be said of it was that it was a meaningful starting point upon which to build.
The following year's COP 16 summit was held in Canc un, Mexico. Just prior to
the 2010 meeting, the Canadian Senate voted against a greenhouse emissions bill
that would have called for a reduction in the country's emissions by 25% of its 1990
level by 2020. The bill had previously passed through Canada's House of Commons
in 2009 but, even if it had cleared the Senate, Canada would have had a smaller
reduction target than some other nations, including the EU, whose policy it was to
cut emissions by 30% of 1990 levels by 2020.
At Cancun itself Japan, China and even the USA were not supportive of the cuts
necessary to curb warming to 2 ◦ C above pre-industrial levels. However, it was agreed