Copenhagen's unresolved issues

Dot Earth
Climate Talks Make Way for a Design Show
Andrew Rivkin: Out with climate talks, in with home-design trade show. Climate caravan moves on. Next stops: Bonn, Mexico City.
What was agreed at Copenhagen – and what was left out
18 December
Copenhagen Wrap-Up – Paskal
(CBC The Current Part 2) … according to Cleo Paskal, even a successful end to the meetings in Copenhagen would still fall short because it wouldn’t address the political fallout from things like rising sea levels, natural disasters, and the population movement that come with climate change.
17 December
(National Post) Tomorrow is the final day of the Copenhagen climate conference and a large number of key issues have yet to be resolved.
ONE TREATY OR TWO?
– No agreement on whether to extend Kyoto Protocol or end Kyoto and agree to one new treaty.
– Developed countries prefer one new treaty.
– Developing nations want to preserve Kyoto and agree on a separate deal binding the United States and including finance for developing nations.
TERMS OF NEW TREATY
– No agreement on whether new pact or pacts would run from 2013-17 or 2013-20.
– No agreement on whether the pact or pacts would be legally binding.
– No agreement on a deadline to make any pact into a full treaty.
LONG-TERM GOAL
– No agreement on a long-term goal to avoid dangerous climate change. United Nations wants to limit global warming to 2C or 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, and cut global greenhouse gas emissions by between 50% and 95% by 2050.
MID-TERM RICH NATIONS EMISSIONS CUTS
– No agreement on how far individual rich countries should cut their emissions by 2020.
– No agreement on a reference year for those cuts, for example compared with 1990, 2000 or 2005.
ACTION BY DEVELOPING NATIONS
– No agreement on how far poorer countries should commit to greenhouse gas curbs.
FINANCE
– No agreement on how much rich nations should pay developing nations over 2010-12.
– No agreement on how much rich countries should pay from 2013.
– No agreement on how the finance bill will be split between countries.
CARBON MARKETS
– No agreement on how to scale up carbon finance, where rich nations pay for emissions cuts in developing countries through trade in carbon offsets.
16 December
(Yahoo! news) Over a week of negotiations left a large number of unresolved issues that now land squarely in the laps of cabinet-rank government officials to resolve. The process has been complicated by the early arrival of several heads of state, who are getting involved in the talks far earlier than anticipated.