Clifford Chance
COP 17 - The 'Durban Platform' [Japanese version]
15 February 2012
The 17th meeting of the Conference of Parties (COP 17) and the 7th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 7) took place in the bright sunshine of Durban, South Africa between 28 November and 9th December. As has now become common at such meetings, the actual hard end of the decision making took place in the dying hours of the conference and, on this occasion, in the early hours of Sunday 11th December. Perhaps it was fatigue that wore out the resistance offered in the days leading up to the conference's climax or perhaps it was the realisation that our environmental debt crisis is no less significant than the financial debt crisis we currently face; in the end, the Durban meeting will be remembered for setting the world on a new path towards a binding international agreement, to be agreed by 2015, to reduce the impact of global emissions.
A series of decisions were made at the conference, the most important of which covered the following topics: Financing climate change – the "Green Climate Fund"; Promotion of REDD+ activities in developing countries; Entry into a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol; and the future of the Clean Development Mechanism. This briefing discusses these and other developments at the conference.
