Durban Climate Conference - COP 17

UN Climage Change Conference
COP 17 & CMP 7

Durban, South Africa
November 28-December 11, 2011

In what could prove to be a key transitional moment, governments meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, adopted a package of decisions initiating another phase of the Kyoto Protocol and simultaneously launching a new round of talks aimed at producing a successor agreement starting in 2020. 

• Read C2ES's summary of the outcome [1]
• C2ES Statement on the Durban Deal [2]
• Durban - How Big a Deal? [3], blog post by Elliot Diringer
• Evaluating Durban [4], blog post by Dan Bodansky

Other Resources:

• Making Progress in Durban [5]
• C2ES press briefing on Durban expectations and the U.S. outlook [6]
• The Question of Binding [7], blog post by Elliot Diringer, December 5, 2011
• “Letting go of Kyoto [8],” in Nature, November 17, 2011.
• Durban Outcome Explained [9], watch an interview with Elliot Diringer on E&E TV's OnPoint, December 19, 2011
• At Climate Talks, Resistance From India, China, U.S. [10], interview with Elliot Diringer on NPR's Morning Edition, December 7, 2011
• At Climate Talks, a Familar Standoff Between U.S. and China [11], New York Times article, December 7, 2010.

Find key resources, insights, and analysis of the global climate change negotiations on this page.

New Publications:

• Multilateral Climate Efforts Beyond the UNFCCC [12], November 2011.
  A number of established multilateral regimes offer important avenues for climate mitigation efforts complementary to those of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN FCCC ). Tackling discrete dimensions of the climate challenge in regional, sectoral and other global venues can yield action on multiple fronts, contributing toward closing the gap between national pledges and the UN FCCC goal of limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius. This brief examines ongoing and potential efforts in the International Maritime Organization, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Montreal Protocol, and the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution.
• Common Metrics: Comparing Countries’ Climate Pledges [13], September 2011.
  To enable a better understanding of the mitigation pledges offered under the Copenhagen Accord and the Cancún Agreements, this analysis converts the 2020 pledges of the major economies into four common metrics: percent change in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990; percent change from 2005; percent change from “business as usual” and; percent change in emissions intensity from 2005.
• W[h]ither the Kyoto Protocol? Durban and Beyond [14], August 2011.
  This discussion paper analyzes the options going forward for the Kyoto Protocol, including adoption of a legally-binding second commitment period, a “political” second commitment period, or no new commitment period. It also considers the legal implications of a gap between the end of Kyoto’s first commitment period and the adoption of a new legal regime to limit emissions, the prospects for the Clean Development Mechanism in the absence of a second Kyoto commitment period, and the relationship between the Kyoto Protocol negotiations and the emerging regime under the Cancun Agreements [15].

Press Briefings in Durban:

• Monday, December 5 [6]
  C2ES Executive Vice President Elliot Diringer and VP for Strategic Outreach Manik Roy share their insights and take questions on the outlook for Durban and for U.S. climate policy. Click to watch [6].

• Tuesday, December 6 [16]
  Elliot Diringer joins Arizona State University Law Professor Dan Bodansky to discuss multilateral climate efforts beyond the UNFCCC. This is the subject of a C2ES report [12] authored by Bodansky. Click to watch [6].