The focus of deliberations over the next twelve days will be on putting together an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol when it expires at the end of 2012.
The Climate Change Conference will begin with negotiations at working level. Towards the end of the two-week conference, the heads of state and government will arrive in Copenhagen. Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected on 17 December. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US President Barack Obama too will be attending the final round of negotiations.
The expectations of the German government
A political agreement under the aegis of the United Nations with international monitoring is essential.
Concrete targets must be set for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide in the industrialised countries, but emerging economies such as India and China too must accept binding climate protection measures.
Equally, pledges are needed for the financing of climate change mitigation measures in poorer states. New environmentally sound technologies are needed here.
The overarching goal is the "two-degree target”. Experts are convinced that this is the maximum level of global warming that the Earth can take without disastrous consequences.
"If, at the end of the day, the two-degree limit is not part of the agreement, Copenhagen cannot be said to have been a success,” underscored Federal Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen in the Sunday paper "Bild am Sonntag".
Conference carries the hopes of humanity
In his opening address, the Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen called on the delegations to approach negotiations in a "constructive, flexible and realistic” frame of mind. "Differences can be overcome provided the political will is there,” he declared.
A deal is within our reach, he continued. "Let us concentrate not on what divides us, but on what unites us,” he called on the delegations from around the world.
On average global temperatures have risen by 0.74 degrees Celsius over the last century, and sea levels have risen by 17 centimetres. Sea levels could rise by as much as seven metres if Greenland’s ice sheet melts. In Africa, between 75 million and 250 million people could be suffering water shortages by 2020 as a result of climate change. This makes it vital that we keep global warming down to no more than 2 – 2.4 degrees Celsius. And that will cost no more than three percent of GDP by 2020. (taken from the speech given by Rajendra Pachauri, IPCC Chairman in Copenhagen)
