David Victor's Opinion on the Cancun Agreement
Last-minute deal saves climate talks
12/14/2010
Jeff Tollefson,
Nature.com
International negotiators did what they needed to do in Cancun, Mexico, to keep the United Nations climate talks from collapsing into the failure that many had feared. The true extent of their success, however, will depend on what comes next.
Working into the small hours of 11 December, negotiators agreed that both developed and developing countries will act to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions — and that those actions will be registered and subjected to some form of international verification. The accord represents a major shift for developing countries, which faced no such commitments under the existing Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012. The conference also reached a historic agreement on forest protection, and advanced programmes to help the developing world adopt clean energy and adapt to climate change.
Click here to read the full article.
Related Links
David Victor is Director of the Laboratory on International Law and Regulation (ILAR). Looking across a wide array of issues from environment and energy to human rights, trade and security, the Laboratory explores when (and why) international laws actually work.
