COP 15 in Copenhagen ended

The Copenhagen Accord – what does it say?

Global warming below 2 degrees
The accord agrees that deep global cuts in emissions are required according to science. Global warming should be kept below 2 degrees Celsius. However, there are no medium or long term targets for global emissions reductions required to do this.

Financing
New funding shall be provided to developing countries, to support action on mitigation, finance to reduce deforestation, adaptation, technology development and transfer and capacity-building. Finance goal is USD 30 billion for the period 2010-2012 mainly from Japan, EU and US. There is also a goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion dollars a year by 2020.
 
Reporting
Developing countries are asked to register their own commitments on reduction of their rising emissions below business as usual. Measurement, reporting and verification of mitigation actions in developing countries should be reported to UNFCCC every two years.

What happens now?
Developed countries should file their emission reduction targets to the Copenhagen accord by the end of January 2010. This is voluntary and it’s up to every country to sign up to the accord. Most of what we hoped to happen in Copenhagen will now have to wait for the already scheduled COP 16 in Mexico, November 2010. In the summer 2010 there will be a pre-meeting in Germany.

How does the deal in Copenhagen affect Volvo Group?
For the Volvo Group there’s no immediate effect from the delay we get due to the lack of results in Copenhagen. We will continue to reduce our impact on the climate. There will still be a focus on fuel efficiency on our products and we’ll continue to develop vehicles for renewable fuels. The environmental challenge for our own operations will be as ambitious as before when it comes to energy efficiency improvement and actions towards CO2-neutral production.

New funding for actions in developing countries might be an opportunity for Volvo Group. We can contribute in new projects with transport solutions and low carbon technique.