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Protecting the climate
International and national policies on climate and development
A globally effective climate policy can only be realised in the context of international cooperation. The international community is therefore currently negotiating a global agreement with binding targets for climate protection.
At present, the bases for this international cooperation are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, which sets binding climate protection targets for the industrialised countries to 2012.
There is a consensus that to keep climate change within manageable limits, global warming must not exceed 2 degrees Celsius. To this end, and in line with the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the industrialised countries as a group should reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 and developing countries – especially those with more advanced economies – should collectively achieve a substantial deviation below the currently predicted emissions growth rate, in the order of 15-30 per cent by 2020. This means that global greenhouse emissions must be reduced to 50 per cent below 1990 levels by 2050, and by 80-95 per cent in the industrialised countries.
At the Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, the international community did not succeed in agreeing a global deal which – building on the Kyoto Protocol – sets binding climate protection targets for the period 2013-2020 and beyond to 2050. Nonetheless, with the Copenhagen Accord, which was negotiated between 26 Parties and now has the backing of numerous other countries as well, an agreement was reached which aims to limit global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius over the long term.
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