Attached is the draft Copenhagen Accord, which was hammered out by the United States, China, India and South Africa, and made available less than two hours ago. The Conference of the Parties is still in session; reportedly 26 other nations are reviewing the draft and may join the Accord. Details regarding wider acceptance of this draft are sketchy at this point.
The major issues that have caused controversy among the delegates have been addressed, such as: a commitment by the developed world countries to provide financing to the developing world countries to assist with mitigation and adaptation, amounting to $30 billion between 2010 and 2012, rising to $100 billion by 2020; prevention of deforestation and market mechanisms to enhance forest programs; a recognition of the importance of keeping the rise in temperature to less than 2 degrees; and a commitment to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to below 50 percent of 1990 level, with Annex I parties committing to reduce their emissions individually or jointly by 80 percent. Finally, implementation of the Accord shall be reviewed in 2016 to determine if the long-term goal of a less than 2 degree rise in temperature should be reduced to 1.5 degrees.