A new pact would replace the Kyoto Protocol, whose present round ends in 2012.
The following are key issues yet to be agreed, and some areas of possible agreement if draft texts are approved:
One treaty or two?
- No agreement on whether to extend Kyoto and add extra national commitments under a separate pact, or end Kyoto and agree one new treaty which specifies actions by all countries.
- Kyoto limits the emissions of nearly 40 industrialised countries from 2008-2012, but the United States never ratified the pact and it doesn't bind the emissions of developing nations.
- Rich nations prefer one new treaty including all countries.
- Developing nations want to extend and sharpen Kyoto limits on rich countries, and add a separate deal binding the United States and which includes support for and action by poor nations.
Terms of the new treaty
- No agreement on whether new pact or pacts would run from 2013-2017 or 2013-2020.
- No agreement on whether would be legally binding.
Long-term goal
- No agreement yet on a long-term goal to avoid dangerous climate change.
- A UN text on Wednesday proposed choices to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius, 1.5 degrees or one degree above pre-industrial levels, and to cut global greenhouse gas emissions by between 50 and 95% by 2050.
- Poorer nations oppose long-term global emissions targets until rich countries commit to do more in the short-term.
Mid-term rich nation emissions cuts
- No agreement yet on how far individual rich countries should cut their emissions by 2020.
- No agreement on a reference year for those cuts, for example compared with 1990 or 2005.
- Draft UN texts on Wednesday proposed options for cuts of 15-49% compared with 1990 or 2005.
- Rich nations have proposed 14-18% cuts versus 1990.
- Developing nations including China want collective rich nation cuts of at least 40% by 2020 versus 1990.
Finance
- Agreement is nearing on how much rich nations should pay developing nations in the short or medium term to help them fight climate change.
- The United States, Europe and the head of the African group of nations support $10 billion per year by 2012 fast-track funding, and $100 billion annually by 2020.
- The United States said its participation was conditional on a "strong accord" in Copenhagen.
- No agreement on how the finance bill will be split between countries.
Deadline for new deal
- Copenhagen aims to agree a global climate pact. No agreement yet on a deadline to make that into a full treaty.
- UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and French President Nicolas Sarkozy this week called for a full treaty by June 2010.
Climate action by developing nations
- No agreement yet on how far poorer countries should commit to targets to curb growth in greenhouse gases.
- The United States demands transparency from developing nations on climate action.
- A Wednesday draft proposed a registry to record developing country actions, but left open whether that was voluntary or not.
Excluded sectors, loopholes
- No agreement on whether to include aviation and shipping, and make it mandatory to include farming and forestry in targets.
- Kyoto excludes greenhouse gases from aviation and shipping, responsible for at least 5% of global emissions.
- Under Kyoto rich countries don't have to include in their targets emissions from land use, including forests and farming.
- Combined, farms and deforestation account for a third of all global greenhouse gases.
Role of carbon markets
- No agreement yet on how to scale up carbon finance under Kyoto's existing $6.5 billion clean development mechanism (CDM).
- Under the CDM rich nations pay for emissions cuts in developing countries through trade in carbon offsets.
- The European Union wants the scheme to invest tens of billions annually in developing nations by 2020.
- No agreement on whether to include carbon capture storage in the CDM, a technology which cuts carbon emissions from coal plants.
- No agreement on including forest preservation in CDM.
- Likely agreement to allow developers to appeal against U.N. panel rejections of CDM projects.
Forestry
- Likely agreement on rewarding tropical countries which slow deforestation under a new deal.
- A Wednesday text includes safeguards to protect indigenous people's rights and prevent rewards for conversion of virgin forests.
- No agreement on how to fund forest preservation.
(EurActiv with Reuters.)
