Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 03/2011

Towards a Breakthrough for Deadlocked Climate Change Negotiations

Akihiro Sawa

December 2010

Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard University

Abstract

With the gap between developed and developing nations remaining unclosed, post-Kyoto Protocol negotiations have run into rough waters: Developing countries insist that developed countries be committed to more ambitious targets for the second phase of the Kyoto Protocol and provide large amounts of financial or technological assistance to developing countries, while developed countries propose that financial and technological support be balanced with developing countries' mitigation actions and measurement, reporting, and verification (MRV).