FAQ: Copenhagen conference 2009

BetweenDec. 7 and 18, environment ministers and officials from 192 countries will converge on Copenhagen fora United Nations conference on climate change.

More than 85 world leaders,includingPrime MinisterStephen Harper, Chinese PremierWen Jiabaoand U.S. PresidentBarack Obama,plan toparticipate in person.

What is this summit?

In 1992, the vast majority of the world's nations signed on to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). While legally non-binding,the treatyprovides an outline for member countries to stabilize and reduce the production of greenhouse gases.

After years of intense negotiation, the member states hammered out an agreement on how to put these principles into action. TheKyoto Protocol, formally adopted in December 1997,set firmtargets to reduce emissions, but only for 37industrializednations.

Thesegoalsvary by country; Canada's targetis a six-per-cent reduction below 1990 levels by 2012.

One-hundred and eighty-ninecountries have ratified Kyoto to date, with the United Statesnotably absent from the list. The U.S.signed the protocol, which came into force in February 2005, but has neither ratified nor withdrawn from it.

The Conference of the Parties (COP),the UNFCCC's highest decision-making body,holds a meeting each year. The goal of these summits is to keepthe treaty'sbroad climate change efforts on track.

This year's 15th meeting, also known as COP15, takes place in Copenhagen.

Whythesense ofurgency?

Climate scientists believe that increases in global temperatures must be kept no more than two degrees Celsius above Industrial Revolution levels to prevent wide-spread environmental damage, such as rising oceans and widespread droughts.

The world's temperatures have risen by an estimated 0.74 Celsius during the past 100 years, according to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).And without intervention, global temperatures could rise by up to four degrees by 2060,according to one British study.

At their July 2009 meeting in Italy, the Group of Eight nationsagreed to a two-degree Celsius limit on global warming. While climate experts applauded the goal, the countries didnt reach a consensus on the hard targets needed to achieve it.

Keeping the promise will not be easy for the G8. The European Union says that, based on IPCC findings,global emissions need to peak by 2020 and then be more than halved under 1990 levels by mid-century to keep the global temperature increase under two degrees.

What's the ultimate goal of COP15?

The original aim wasto find a successor deal to Kyoto, whichexpires at the end of 2012. The international community had set a December deadline tomake it happen.

However, a rift between developed and developing nations over emissions who should cut, how much, and who should pay for it hasdampened expectations for what will come out of Copenhagen.

The hope now is for a politically binding deal that will produce an outline for a more formal agreement to be considered late next year.

As Yvon de Boer, the executive secretary of the UNFCCC, states on the convention's website: "At Copenhagen, governments must reach agreement on all the essential elements of a comprehensive, fair and effective deal on climate change, that both ensures long-term commitments and launches immediate action."

What is the stolen email scandal?

Hundreds of emails between scientists at the U.K.'s Climatic Research Unit, a leading global research centre on climate change, were apparentlystolen and made publicin November. Skeptics of climate science have seized on the documents at least some of which have been confirmed as authentic as evidence that some scientists have overstated the case for global warming and have attempted to manipulate data.

But researchers working with the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have dismissed the posting of documents as an attempt to derail discussions leading up to the Copenhagen summit.

What is Canada's position at COP15?

Analysis

Don Newman: You can't blame Prime Minister Stephen Harper for being a reluctant participant at the Copenhagen summit.

In the leadup to COP15, Harper told reporters thathis governmentbelieved it was essential to keep Canada's targets in line with those of the U.S. because of the close integration of their two economies.

Canada'starget, Harper said, is fora 20-per-cent reduction from 2006 levels of greenhouse gases by 2020. The proposal also includes a cap-and-trade system with the United States.

What do other countries have on the table?

Some of the national perspectives going into the summit: