In his first official press conference since the conclusion of the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen, UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer acknowledged that the much-anticipated conference did not deliver all it could have, it did “set the stage” in three key elements:
- Raising climate change to the highest level of government
- Producing a document (the Copenhagen Accord (pdf)) that reflects a political consensus on the long-term, global response to climate change
- Negotiations led to nearly a full set of decisions to implement a rapid response to climate change
But the failure to bring a full, binding agreement in Copenhagen makes the need to address climate change on a global scale “even more urgent” – looking now to COP16 later this year in Mexico City.