COP 15 ends with Obama-brokered Copenhagen Accord and UN decisions to extend negotiating mandate.
Submitted by Grant Boyle
COP 15 ended Saturday afternoon. The Parties decided to extend the mandate of the working groups under the Kyoto Protocol and Long Term Cooperative Action and requested those groups to deliver the results of their work for adoption by COP 16 in Mexico next year.
COP 15 also adopted a decision "taking note" of the Copenhagen Accord. As widely reported, the Copenhagen Accord is considered politically important, but does not constitute a legally binding agreement, even though no such agreement was anticipated going into the summit. In any event, the Copenhagen Accord represents a novel outcome for UN negotiations and has created some uncertainty over the procedure and forum for international climate talks going forward. Jacob Werksman posted a helpful brief analysis of the international legal status of the Accord.
Also, the Pew Center has published a good Summary of the conference.