What is the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference?

In 1990, the UN General Assembly decided to start work on a climate change convention and in 1994 the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) came into force. Their goal is to stabilise the amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate changes.

Each year a Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC is held, where the countries that have ratified the convention meet and discuss how its goal can be implemented in practice. The next conference in the series is COP14, to be held in Poznan, Poland in early December of this year, and this will be followed by COP15, which is scheduled to take place in Copenhagen from 30 November to 11 December 2009.

The significance of Copenhagen 2009

The historic significance of the Copenhagen event is that its primary objective is to establish an ambitious agreement on reducing man-made GHG emissions for the period from 2012, a post-Kyoto Protocol agreement.

Indeed, if the world’s nations are to decide upon a new agreement to enter into force before the Kyoto Protocol expires, COP15 in Copenhagen is the final opportunity to do so. The conference will be attended by the environment ministers and officials from the 189 countries taking part, including the USA and China.

What is the Institution doing?

Over the coming year we will use our website to put forward the Institution’s thoughts on COP15, communicate our programme of activity in the run-up to this historic event, and to engage you in a dialogue regarding the warming of the planet’s atmosphere, changes in climate, and the options available to society to meet the possible challenges.

Learn more about our programme of activity.