December – COP 15 took place in Copenhagen, Denmark. After the end of the Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, it was unable to reach agreement on binding commitments. In the final hours of the summit, the leaders of the United States, Brazil, China, Indonesia, India and South Africa agreed on what should be called the Copenhagen Accord, which recognized the need to limit the rise in global temperature to 2°C based on the science of climate change. Although the agreement did not require legally binding commitments, countries were asked to promise voluntary GHG reduction targets. $100 billion in climate aid to developing countries has been pledged. 2004 – COP 10 was held in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The parties have begun to discuss adjustment options. Only the processes that govern the preparation of reports and the consideration of these objectives are prescribed by international law. This structure is particularly noteworthy for the United States – since there are no legal mitigation or funding objectives, the agreement is considered an ”executive agreement rather than a treaty.” Since the 1992 UNFCCC treaty received Senate approval, this new agreement does not need new congressional legislation to enter into force. [33] Based solely on current climate commitments in the Paris Agreement, temperatures are expected to have risen by 3.2°C by the end of the 21st century, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). To limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5°C, annual emissions must be below 25 gigatons (Gt) by 2030. With the current commitments of November 2019, emissions will be 56 Gt CO2e by 2030, twice as much as the environmental target. To limit the increase in global temperature to 1.5°C, the annual reduction in global emissions required between 2020 and 2030 is an annual reduction in emissions of 7.6%.

The four largest emitters (China, the United States, eu27 and India) have contributed more than 55% of total emissions over the past decade, excluding emissions from land-use change such as deforestation. China`s emissions increased by 1.6% in 2018 to a peak of 13.7 Gt CO2 equivalent. The United States emits 13% of global emissions and emissions increased by 2.5% in 2018. The EU emits 8.5% of global emissions and has fallen by 1% per year over the last decade. Emissions decreased by 1.3% in 2018. India`s 7% of global emissions increased by 5.5% in 2018, but its per capita emissions are among the lowest in the G20. [100] There were high expectations for COP15 (Copenhagen) in 2009, although it took place a year after the global financial crash. It was expected that new quantitative commitments would guarantee an agreement after 2012 to move smoothly away from the Kyoto Protocol. Barack Obama had just become President of the United States, which raised hopes for a more positive approach. The EU had prepared an unconditional 20% reduction in emissions by 2020 compared to the 1990 baseline and a conditional target of 30% if other industrialised countries set binding targets.

Most other developed countries had something to offer. Norway was ready to reduce its emissions by 40 per cent and Japan by 25 per cent from the 1990 baseline. Even the United States offered a 17% drop from the 2005 baseline, a 4% decrease from the 1990 base year. But the Copenhagen conference went terribly badly. Initially, the Danish government had completely underestimated the interest in the conference and provided too small a venue. In the second week, when all the high-level ministers of the countries and their support arrived, there was not enough room for manoeuvre, which prevented many NGOs from accessing the negotiations. Secondly, it was clear that the negotiators were not ready for the arrival of the ministers and that there was no agreement. This led to the leak of the ”Danish text” subtitled ”The Copenhagen Accord” and proposed measures to keep the average global temperature increase at 2°C above pre-industrial levels (Gupta, 2014). A dispute began between developed and developing countries, as it was a brand new text that had just been published in the middle of the conference.

Developing countries accused developed countries of working behind closed doors and reaching an agreement that suited them without obtaining the consent of developing countries (Byrne and Maslin, 2015). .