UNITED NATIONS
United Nations
Association of Slovenia
SUMMER SCHOOL
14 - 17 SEPTEMBER 2015
WHAT KIND OF FUTURE WILL 2015 BRING?
The international landscape of 2015 is marked by the crucial multilateral processes. Since the new development landscape is being discussed, this year is also vital for international development cooperation. In March, world leaders met at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan. At the Third International Conference on Financing for Development, held in Addis Abeba, Ethiopia in July, means of implementation of the future development goals were discussed. New set of development goals, called Sustainable Development Goals will be adopted at the UN Summit to Adopt the Post-2015 Development Agenda in New York in September. Climate change agenda will be addressed at the 2015 Paris Climate Conference in December.
In the light of those processes, the European Union decided to mark 2015 as the European Year for Development 2015 with the aim to promote debate about international development cooperation. International agreements made this year, especially the post-2015 development agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals, will address global challenges for the next 15 years.
WHERE IS THE FUTURE GOING TO BE DISCUSSED?
Disaster Risk
Reduction
Sustainable
Development
Goals
CLIMATE CHANGE
In 2015, France will be hosting and presiding the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), otherwise known as “Paris 2015” from November 30th to December 11th. COP21 will be a crucial conference, as it needs to achieve a new international agreement on the climate, applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C. France will therefore be playing a leading international role to ensure points of view converge and to facilitate the search for consensus by the United Nations, as well as within the European Union, which has a major role in climate negotiations. Furthermore, France's role will also be important in hosting this seminal conference itself, because COP21 will be one of the largest international conferences ever held in the country. The conference is expected to attract close to 50,000 participants including 25,000 official delegates from government, intergovernmental organisations, UN agencies, NGOs and civil society. In 2015 COP21 will, for the first time in over 20 years of UN negotiations, aim to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.
How it all began...
The international political response to climate change has already began at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where the ‘Rio Convention’ included the adoption of the UNFCCC. This convention set out a framework for action aimed at estabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases to avoid “dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” The UNFCCC which entered into force on 21 March 1994, has now almost universal membership of 195 parties.
The main objective of the annual Conference of Parties (COP) is to review the Convention’s implementation. The first COP took place in Berlin in 1995 and significant meetings since then have included COP3 where the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, COP11 where the Montreal Action Plan was produced, COP15 in Copenhagen where an agreement to success Kyoto Protocol was unfortunately not realised and COP17 in Durban where the Green Climate Fund was created.