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ANU Climate Change Institute

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REPORT:Keeping Warming Within the Two Degrees Limit After Copenhagen

August 26th
2009

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At the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, the international community will try to establish a new legal architecture for addressing anthropogenic climate change. Many countries have expressed support for the notion that the objects of the international climate regime should include thedesire to keep the increase in the global average surface temperature to a maximum of 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Achieving this objective will require strong near-term abatement commitments from developed and developing countries. At this point in the negotiations, it appears the aggregate abatement target for developed countries for 2020 will be between 10-20% below 1990 levels – well outside the 25-40% range that was included in the Bali Action Plan.

The above information was provided by  Andrew Macintosh who works at the ANU Centre for Climate Law and Policy (CCLP) which is situated in the ANU College of Law.  The CCLP has a Working Paper Series which provides a forum for the presentation of initial findings from CCLP research projects.  The publications are intended to facilitate the exchange of information on climate law and policy issues.

Download Andrew Macintosh’s paper  here:Keeping Warming Within the Two Degrees Limit After Copenhagen

Photo by: ANU student - Ban Ya Yim. The photo was entered in the ANU CCI CAPTURE: Climate Change Impacts Photographic Competition held in July 2009.

Caption: This image was taken while driving in an SUV, on a cold winter’s evening in Illinois, on a road surrounded with seemingly endless fields of corn interrupted occasionally with a sign for corn-derived ethanol. The date? November 4, 2008. Our destination? Hutchinson Field, Chicago. Why? To watch Barack Obama win the 2008 Presidential Election. As I snapped this picture, I couldn’t help that it was the sun was setting on the era of oil-hungry President Bush as we sped ahead filled with hope and excitement for change of more sustainable and environmentally viable ways to fulfill the world’s thirst for oil…