A World-wide Climate Agreement by the End of 2015
Nations around the world are filing notice of their proposed contributions for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases in the next 10-15 years, or more. This is being done ahead of the next (21 st ) United Nations “Conference of the Parties” ( COP ) that convenes starting the end of November 2015. Since the 2009 COP in Copenhagen nations have struggled unsuccessfully to agree to a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol (KP) of 1997, which expired in 2012. Recently the negotiators have moved toward a proposed agreement based on voluntary, but verifiable, contributions toward emissions abatement, instead of the top-down imposition of limits as was done in the KP. In addition, the agreement, which should be finalized in the 21 st COP , will apply to all nations, without excluding the developing nations as the KP did. This affords the best chance for agreeing to worldwide reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The consequences of man-made global...