Many people and organisations pinned their hopes for dealing with climate change on the capacity of the international community to reach agreement during the Copenhagen summit and to commit to positive action. This was not to be and for many, the unwillingness of countries to sign up to definite action is seen as a failure. However, perhaps we should realistically regard the December 2009 UN talks as a starting point.

The Copenhagen Accord, as it was named last month, makes reference to the need to keep temperature rises to no more than 2°C and says rich countries will commit to cutting greenhouse gases and developing nations will take steps to limit the growth of their emissions – but sets no targets.

Under the accord, countries will set out their pledges for the action they plan to take to tackle climate change, in an appendix to the document, and will provide information to other nations on their progress.

There are promises of short term finance to the tune of $10 billion a year over three years for poor countries to help them fight climate change, and a long term funding package worth $100 billion a year by 2020.

There are also references to the importance of reducing deforestation and efforts to give poor countries access to technology that helps them go green.

Download the Copenhagen Accord here.

Countries will meet in Mexico City (COP16 in December 2010) to fill in details sketched in the Copenhagen Accord.

Continuing discussions in 2010

According to a statement from French President, Nicolas Sarkozy’s office, Sarkozy intends hosting a meeting of the 28 countries that signed the Copenhagen Accord in Paris in April or May 2010.

The aim of the meeting would be to implement the target of halving global emissions by 2050 – a target that has been repeated in many international sessions throughout the last year, including summits of the Group of 20 (G-20) and the Major Economies Forum. However, it was omitted in the accord agreed at the UN conference in Copenhagen, COP15.

In the view of environmental organisations such as Greenpeace, the focus must now turn to domestic and regional actions to curb emissions. For instance, meeting Europe's target to generate 20% of its energy from renewables by 2020 will now be critical.
Much of the solution to environmental problems lies with the application of new technology and changing personal behaviour. Politicians can provide a framework, but little progress will be made until individuals start making different decisions.

We can take four important steps right now to reduce our personal impact on the environment. We can:

• reduce consumption

• reduce or eliminate the meat in our diets

• reduce energy use

• reduce water use.

We can also continue to put pressure on our governments and keep up-to-date with the climate change discussion on sites such as:

http://en.cop15.dk/ (United Nations Climate Change Copenhagen Conference website)

http://unfccc.int/2860.php (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change)

http://www.ipcc.ch/index.htm (for Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change reports)

http://www.avaaz.org/en/ (for information on current community action)

http://www.google.com/landing/cop15/ (Google Earth)
Google Earth has videos and other material to explore the potential impacts of climate change on our planet Earth and learn about solutions for adaptation and mitigation. You can view climate change scenarios, interact with narrated tours, investigate deforestation and even dive into the depths of the oceans.