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Questions and Answers on Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, 2009

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Questions and Answers on Copenhagen Climate Change Summit, 2009
Global Warming and the Economy
(Copenhagen climate change summit, 2009)

In order to talk about the problems which have been discussed and the solutions which have been found during the 2009 Copenhagen climate change summit, first we have to present a few aspects regarding the Kyoto protocol.

The Kyoto protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming. The FCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”

The protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan and entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of July 2010, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol. Under the protocol, 37 countries commit themselves to a reduction of four greenhouse gases and two groups of gases produced by them, and all member countries give general commitments. It is also important to mention the fact that the protocol allows several “flexible mechanisms”, such as emissions trading, the clean development mechanism and joint implementation to allow countries to meet their gas emissions limitations.

Therefore, what is the Copenhagen climate change summit and what is its connection to the Kyoto protocol?

This is a United Nations climate change conference which took place between 7 and 18 December 2009 in order for the environment ministers and officials to draft a successor to the Kyoto protocol. The meeting, also known as COP15, was the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) in a long series of meetings that trace their origins to the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio, which aimed at coordinating international action against climate change.

Who participated at the summit and who were the main players?

At the summit participated officials, heads of state and

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