Green Daily

I mean, sure, the final document that replaces the Kyoto Protocol will have a lot of legal details, but Yvo de Boer hopes to use the conference to achieve international consensus on these points:

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?

2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?

3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?

4. How is that money going to be managed?

He didn't mention it, but the other big question is what role will the U.S. play this time, considering we decided not to sign the original Kyoto Protocol. President Barack Obama has signaled that the U.S. is willing to participate and even lead the changes required to save the planet (See? Scary and stressful. Sorry, it just goes with the topic.) but no one knows how it will play out in real life. All of this will require major diplomacy and negotiation, which will be fascinating to watch.

From there, the next step will be taking care of all of those pesky legal details. Fortunately for the busy government officials of the world, a coalition of international environmental NGO agencies drafted the 'Copenhagen Climate Treaty'. You can read all about the treaty on the WWF site.

In the words of Martin Kaiser of Greenpeace International. "All that is needed now is political will and the 'cut and paste' feature to produce the agreement the world is waiting for."

Well, that does make it sound simple, doesn't it?

In addition to Greenpeace and WWF, the other NGOs behind this treaty are:

• IndyACT – the League of Independent Activists
• Germanwatch
• David Suzuki Foundation
• National Ecological Centre of Ukraine, and
• expert individuals from around the world

Specifics of what this group, which I have to admit sounds like it skews just a bit to the radical/liberal side, came up with for the treaty include:

• a carbon budget which would bring CO2 levels down to 1990 levels by 2020, and reduces them by another 80% by 2050
• a new organization to manage the processes of "emissions cuts, adaptation and forest protection"
• different plans for developed, developing and "Newly Industrialized" countries that match responsibility for action with resources and abilities

It's still a lot of information, but this does make the whole Copehagen Climate Conference thing seem a lot less mysterious.